Old Testament · Exodus

Exodus 21

Hebrew Servants

(Deuteronomy 15:12–18)

1And these are the judgments^a which you shall set before them.

2When you buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve^b; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3If by himself he comes in, by himself he shall go out; if he is the husband of a wife^c, then his wife shall go out with him. 4If 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 by himself.

5But if the servant plainly says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free," 6then his master shall bring him near to God, and shall bring him near to the door or to the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with the awl, and he shall serve him forever.

7And when a man^d sells his daughter for a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants go out. 8If she is bad in the eyes of her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; to a foreign people he shall not have power to sell her, since he has dealt treacherously with her. 9And if for his son he designates her, according to the judgment of the daughters he shall do for her. 10If another he takes for himself, her food, her covering, and her marital right he shall not diminish. 11And if these three he does not do for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without money.

Personal Injury Laws

12One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. 13But one who did not lie in wait, and God let it come to his hand—then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.

14And when a man acts presumptuously against his neighbor to slay him with cunning, from My altar you shall take him to die.

15And one who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

16And one who steals a man and sells him, or he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.

17And one who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

18And when men contend, and one man strikes his neighbor with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die but falls to bed, 19if he rises and walks about outside upon his staff, then the one who struck shall be acquitted; only he shall give for his loss of time, and he shall surely have him healed.

20And when a man strikes his manservant or his maidservant with the rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be avenged. 21But if a day or two days he stands, he shall not be avenged, for he is his money.

22And when men struggle and strike a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, he shall surely be fined as the husband of the woman lays upon him, and he shall give by the judges. 23But if there is harm, then you shall give soul^e for soul, 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26And when a man strikes the eye of his manservant or the eye of his maidservant and destroys it, he shall send him out free for the sake of his eye. 27And if the tooth of his manservant or the tooth of his maidservant he knocks out, he shall send him out free for the sake of his tooth.

28And when an ox gores a man or a woman so that he dies, the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh^f shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be innocent.

29But if it was an ox prone to gore from yesterday and the day before, and it was testified to its owner, and he did not keep it in, and it killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and also its owner shall be put to death. 30If a ransom is laid upon him, then he shall give the redemption of his soul according to all that is laid upon him.

31Whether it gores a son or gores a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.

32If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, thirty shekels of silver he shall give to his master, and the ox shall be stoned.

33And when a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls there, 34the owner of the pit shall make restitution; money he shall return to its owner, and the dead one shall be his.

35And when one man's ox strikes the ox of his neighbor so that it dies, then they shall sell the living^g ox and divide its money; and also the dead one they shall divide. 36Or if it was known that the ox was prone to gore from yesterday and the day before, and its owner did not keep it in, he shall surely make restitution, ox for ox, and the dead one shall be his.

Property Laws

37When a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, five cattle he shall make restitution for the ox, and four of the flock for the sheep.