Exodus 21
Judgments About Slaves
21“Now these are the ajudgments which you are to set before them:
2“If you buy aa Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. 3“If he comes 1alone, he shall go out 2alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4“If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out 1alone. 5“But aif the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ 6then his master shall bring him to 1God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. Then his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.
7“aAnd if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to 1go free bas the male slaves 2do. 8“If she is 1displeasing in the eyes of her master 2who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his treachery to her. 9“And if he designates her for his son, he shall do to her according to the custom of daughters. 10“If he takes for himself another woman, he may not reduce her 1food, her clothing, or aher conjugal rights. 11“And if he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
Judgments About Personal Injuries
12“aHe who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. 13“aBut 1if he did not lie in wait for him, but bGod let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. 14“aIf, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him by deceit, you shall take him even from My altar, that he may die.
15“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
16“aHe who 1kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.
17“aAnd he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18“And if men contend with each other and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but 1remains in bed, 19if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for 1his loss of time, and 2he shall take care of him until he is completely healed.
20“And if a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies 1at his hand, he shall surely 2be punished. 21“But if for a day or two he is able to stand, no punishment shall be taken; afor he is his 1property.
22“And if men struggle with each other and 1strike a woman with child so that 2she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband 3will set for him, and he shall apay 4as the judges decide. 23“But if there is any further injury, athen you shall pay life for life, 24aeye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.
26“And if a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and ruins it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. 27“And if he 1knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.
28“And if an ox gores a man or a woman 1to death, athe ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. 29“If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it puts a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death. 30“If a ransom is 1demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is 2demanded of him. 31“Whether it gores a son or 1a daughter, it shall be done to him according to 2the same judgment. 32“If the ox gores a male or female slave, 1the owner shall give his or her master 2,athirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall 1give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.
35“And if one man’s ox 1hurts another’s so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price equally; and also they shall divide the dead ox. 36“Or if it is known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.