EX 21:16 Kidnap Law

Law

• Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

Judgement

• Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

Biblical Example

• For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.

GEN 40:15 (WEB)

This biblical example is referring to the infamous act of Jacob's sons kidnapping their own brother, Joseph, and selling him into slavery. Jacob (Israel) loved his son Joseph more than his other sons. Israel (Jacob) made a coat of many colors for his son Joseph. When Joseph's brothers noticed that their father loved him more than them, they hated their brother Joseph. One day, Joseph's brothers were in the land of Dothan; when they saw their brother Joseph coming to them, they plotted to kill him. Reuben, the eldest, Israel's firstborn son, persuaded his brothers to just cast Joseph into a pit so he could later save him from their evil plot. So the children of Israel threw their brother Joseph into an empty pit and took his coat of many colors. Judah then convinced his brothers that they should not kill Joseph but sell him. When Reuben returned to save Joseph from his brothers, he was too late; his brothers had already sold him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver. They then killed a baby goat, dipped Joseph's coat in its blood and deceived their father, Israel, making him believe that Joseph was killed by a wild animal.