We are in chapter twenty-one of Exodus with our word for today. נָכָה strike, smite, strike dead, hit, injure. It is used 501 times in the Old Testament. We find our word used with animals. Numbers 22:32 The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you הִכִּ֙יתָ֙ beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. We also see Moses, Elijah, and Elisha use it in preforming a miracle. Moses does this with the Nile river. Exodus 7:20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials וַיַּ֤ךְ and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. Elijah and Elisha do this with the Jordan river. 2 Kings 2:8, 14 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up וַיַּכֶּ֣ה and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground …He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah וַיַּכֶּ֣ה and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he וַיַּכֶּ֣ה struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. The overwhelming amount of uses of our word have to do with people. Sometimes the result of striking just results in injury other times it kills. Moses is a good example of both of these. Exodus 2:11-13 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian מַכֶּ֥הbeating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he וַיַּךְ֙ [this is the same word but with the result being death] killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you תַכֶּ֖הhitting your fellow Hebrew?” We see our word used in both of these sense in our chapter today.
Exodus 21:12-15, 18-20, 26-27 מַכֵּ֥ה Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die. וּמַכֵּ֥ה “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death…When men quarrel and one וְהִכָּהstrikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he הַמַּכֶּ֑הwho struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed. “When a man יַכֶּה֩strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged…When a man יַכֶּ֨ה strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth. Did you notice again that the slaves have rights to be avenged or to be compensated just like if a person is not a slave. God shows himself in his laws and rules to be loving and protective of his people. I’ll close with some of these great passages from the Psalms that show God’s protective love in destroying the enemies of his people. Psalm 135:8 He שֶֽׁ֭הִכָּהstruck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of people and animals. Psalm 136:10, 17 לְמַכֵּ֣ה to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever… לְ֭מַכֵּהto him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever.
