Exodus 21
1 “These are the judgments which you shall place before them:
Now these are the laws which you are to put before them.
2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve you; in the seventh, he shall depart freely, without charge.
If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment.
3 With whatever clothing he arrived, with the like let him depart. If he has a wife, his wife also shall depart, at the same time.
If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him.
4 But if his lord gave him a wife, and she has borne sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her lord. Yet still, he himself will go out with his clothing.
If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the property of the master, and the servant is to go away by himself.
5 And if the servant will say, ‘I love my lord, and my wife and children, I will not depart freely,’
But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free:
6 then his lord shall make an offering for him to the heavens, and it shall be applied to the door and the posts, and he will pierce his ear with an awl. And he shall be his servant in perpetuity.
Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever.
7 If anyone sells his daughter to be a servant, she shall not depart as a female servant is accustomed to go out.
And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do.
8 If she displeases the eyes of her lord, to whom she had been delivered, he shall dismiss her. But he shall have no authority to sell her to a foreign people, even if he despises her.
If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free; her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to a strange land, because he has been false to her.
9 But if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall treat her according to the custom with daughters.
And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for her as if she was his daughter.
10 And if he takes another for him, he shall provide to the maiden a marriage, and clothing, and he shall not refuse the price of her chastity.
And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing and her married rights are not to be less.
11 If he does not do these three things, she shall depart freely, without money.
And if he does not do these three things for her, she has the right to go free without payment.
12 Whoever strikes a man, intending to murder, shall be put to death.
He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death.
13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands, then I will appoint for you a place to which he must flee.
But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight.
14 If someone murders his neighbor with deliberation, by lying in wait, you shall tear him away from my altar, so that he may die.
But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death.
15 Whoever strikes his father or mother shall die a death.
Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death.
16 Whoever will have stolen a man and sold him, having been convicted of the crime, shall be put to death.
Any man who gets another into his power in order to get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in the act.
17 Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother shall die a death.
Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to death.
18 If men will have quarreled, and one of them has struck his neighbor with a stone or a fist, and he does not die, but lies in bed,
If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone, or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him keep in bed;
19 if he gets up again and can walk outside on his staff, he who struck him will be innocent, but only if he makes sufficient restitution for his deeds and for the cost of the physicians.
If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick, the other will be let off; only he will have to give him payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for till he is well.
20 Whoever strikes his male or female servant with a staff, and if they have died by his hands, he shall be guilty of a crime.
If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo punishment.
21 But if he survives for one day or two, he shall not be subject to punishment, because it is his money.
But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the servant is his property.
22 If men will have quarreled, and one of them has struck a pregnant woman, and as a result she miscarries, but she herself survives, he shall be subject to as much damage as the husband of the woman shall petition from him, or as arbitrators shall judge.
If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges.
23 But if her death will have followed, he will repay a life for a life,
But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life,
24 an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 a scrape for a scrape, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.
Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.
26 If anyone will have struck the eye of his male or female servant, having left them with one eye, he shall release them freely, because of the eye that he has put out.
If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant a blow in the eye, causing its destruction, he is to let him go free on account of the damage to his eye.
27 Likewise, if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female servant, he shall similarly release them freely.
Or if the loss of a tooth is caused by his blow, he will let him go free on account of his tooth.
28 If an ox has struck a man or a woman with his horn, and if they die, it shall be stoned. And its flesh shall not be eaten; also, the owner of the ox will be innocent.
If an ox comes to be the cause of death to a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned, and its flesh may not be used for food; but the owner will not be judged responsible.
29 But if the ox had been pushing with his horn, from yesterday and the day before, and they warned his owner, but he did not confine it, and it will have killed a man or a woman, then the ox shall be stoned, and his owner shall be killed.
But if the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and the owner has had word of it and has not kept it under control, so that it has been the cause of the death of a man or woman, not only is the ox to be stoned, but its owner is to be put to death.
30 But if they have imposed a price on him, he shall give, in exchange for his life, whatever is asked.
If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of whatever price is fixed.
31 Likewise, if it has struck a son or a daughter with its horns, it shall be subject to a similar verdict.
If the death of a son or of a daughter has been caused, the punishment is to be in agreement with this rule.
32 If it attacks a male or female servant, he shall give thirty shekels of silver to their lord, yet truly the ox shall be stoned.
If the death of a man-servant or of a woman-servant is caused by the ox, the owner is to give their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is to be stoned.
33 If a man digs or opens a cistern, and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
If a man makes a hole in the earth without covering it up, and an ox or an ass dropping into it comes to its death;
34 then the owner of the cistern shall repay the price of the beasts, and what is dead will belong to him.
The owner of the hole is responsible; he will have to make payment to their owner, but the dead beast will be his.
35 If the ox of a stranger wounds the ox of another, and it has died, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price, but the carcass of the dead one they shall distribute between them.
And if one man's ox does damage to another man's ox, causing its death, then the living ox is to be exchanged for money, and division made of the price of it, and of the price of the dead one.
36 But if he knew that his ox had pushed with its horns, yesterday and the day before, and its owner did not confine it, then he shall repay an ox for an ox, and he will receive the whole carcass.”
But if it is common knowledge that the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and its owner has not kept it under control, he will have to give ox for ox; and the dead beast will be his.
