Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, &c.— As it might be presumed, that, in this case, the death of the slave was not absolutely owing to the wounds he received, the master was to be thought sufficiently punished by the loss which he sustained in this part of his property; for he is his money; and in this view it might be supposed, that the master had no design to kill him. See Leviticus 25:44.
Note; All these laws concerning slaves, as before intimated, were mild and merciful, if we consider the dispensation under which they were delivered, and the state of mankind in those early ages. But since life and immortality have been brought to light by the Gospel, slavery can no more be admitted or vindicated than polygamy, consistently with the perfection of that high dispensation under which we at present live.