Exodus 21-22

“If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other … (22:18).  After God declared the Ten Commandments through Moses, He then gave detailed instructions for dealing with common daily events.  Being human and sinful, the community would experience conflicts, misunderstandings, and tragedies of all kinds.  These laws didn’t cover every possible accident, but they helped the Israelites to begin applying the main principles of the Commandments to their lives.  

God calls us to more than abstract principles.  Justice and love have to be worked out in real life among real people.