Why does god want to cut off women's hands?

[Esquilax]

Consider what Jesus said regarding divorce - it was not ideal, but because of the hardness of their hearts, it was permitted. You therefore cannot conclude that because a practice was permitted by the law, God sees it as ideal.

So... I'm now being told to believe that god couldn't get what he wanted and had to settle?

And this is the same god that, during the old testament where this slavery stuff is first endorsed, murdered the majority of the world in a global flood because people weren't doing what he wanted? The same god who struck Lot's wife down for looking back when it contravened his commands? The same god that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for immorality, that god permitted slavery because he had no other way of getting to the people?

Besides, the actual content of the message rather disagrees with your surmise; a god who disapproved of slavery would have included rules against harming them, which he didn't do. Instead, he allowed violence against slaves, assuming they don't die right away. These aren't the words of a god who isn't cool with slavery.

Nor is that whole "give them a wife and children so that they stay with you" thing, regarding Jewish slaves that were time limited. Oh, not to mention the idea that one should take their permanent slaves from the nations around you, but never Jews.

There's no conciliation here, no attempt to lessen the suffering of the slaves, or any kind of slow, progressive retraction of things; you can't phrase this as some kind of learning process when it's also a staid and unchanging law.

Speaking of hardening hearts, god had no trouble doing that to Pharaoh around Moses... so hey, let's not attempt a free will argument here. Doesn't work.