John Calvin Commentary Exodus 21:28

"And if an ox gore a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit." — Exodus 21:28 (ASV)

If an ox gore a man. Moses now turns his attention even to animals, so that if they injured anyone, their punishment might increasingly deter people from shedding blood. If, therefore, a goring ox has killed a man, he commands that it should be stoned and its carcass thrown away as abominable.

Though censorious people mock this law, as if it were childish to punish a wretched animal in which there is no guilt, their insolence requires only a brief refutation.

For since oxen were created for human good, we should not be surprised that their death, as well as their life, should be made to contribute to the public good. If, then, an ox that had killed a man were kept, people would undoubtedly grow hardened in cruelty by seeing it; and to eat its flesh would be almost the same as eating human flesh.

Therefore, human cruelty could not be better restrained, so that people would abhor murdering one another, than by avenging a man’s death in this way.

Secondly, God goes further, condemning the ox’s owner himself to death if he had previously been warned to be careful, for such a warning removes the excuse of ignorance.

Nor should the punishment for gross negligence seem severe, because allowing dangerous animals to roam freely is equivalent to plotting people’s deaths. Anyone who knowingly and willfully endangers his brother’s life is rightly considered his murderer.

The exception that is finally added, at first glance, seems to contain a contradiction because the Law forbade making a monetary settlement with a murderer.

But since a delinquency (delictum) differs from a crime, although it was unlawful to make an agreement with murderers for the reduction of their punishment, the judges were still permitted, when hearing the case, to lessen it if a person was excused due to unawareness or carelessness. This, then, is a special exception that allows the judges to distinguish between the nature of offenses: namely, that if they found a person not deserving of death, they should still punish his negligence with a monetary fine.