Exodus 21

1 “These are the judgments which you shall place before them:

And these [are] the judgments which you set before them:

2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve you; in the seventh, he shall depart freely, without charge.

When you buy a Hebrew servant, he serves [for] six years, and in the seventh he goes out as a freeman for nothing;

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 in by himself, he goes out by himself; if he [is] owner of a wife, then his wife has gone out 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 lord gives a wife to him, and she has borne sons or daughters to him—the wife and her children are her lord’s, and he goes out by himself.

5 And if the servant will say, ‘I love my lord, and my wife and children, I will not depart freely,’

And if the servant really says: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons—I do not go out 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 lord has brought him near to God, and has brought him near to the door, or to the doorpost, and his lord has bored his ear with an awl, and he has served him for all time.

7 If anyone sells his daughter to be a servant, she shall not depart as a female servant is accustomed to go out.

And when a man sells his daughter for a handmaid, she does not go out according to the going out of the menservants;

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 [it is] evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he has not betrothed her, then he has let her be ransomed; he has no power to sell her to a strange people, in his dealing treacherously with her.

9 But if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall treat her according to the custom with daughters.

And if he betroths her to his son, he does to her according to the right of daughters.

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.

If he takes another [woman] for him, he does not withdraw her food, her covering, and her habitation;

11 If he does not do these three things, she shall depart freely, without money.

and if he does not do these three for her, then she has gone out for nothing, without money.

12 Whoever strikes a man, intending to murder, shall be put to death.

He who strikes a man so that he has died is certainly 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.

as for him who has not laid wait, but God has brought [him] to his hand, I have even set a place for you to where he flees.

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.

And when a man presumes against his neighbor to slay him with subtlety, you take him from My altar to die.

15 Whoever strikes his father or mother shall die a death.

And he who strikes his father or his mother is certainly put to death.

16 Whoever will have stolen a man and sold him, having been convicted of the crime, shall be put to death.

And he who steals a man, and has sold him, and he has been found in his hand, is certainly put to death.

17 Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother shall die a death.

And he who is reviling his father or his mother is certainly 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,

And when men contend, and a man has struck his neighbor with a stone, or with the fist, and he does not die, but has fallen on the 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 rises, and has gone up and down outside on his staff, then the striker has been acquitted; he only gives [for] his cessation, and he is thoroughly healed.

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.

And when a man strikes his manservant or his handmaid with a rod, and he has died under his hand—he is certainly avenged;

21 But if he survives for one day or two, he shall not be subject to punishment, because it is his money.

only if he remains a day, or two days, he is not avenged, for he [is] his money.

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.

And when men strive, and have struck a pregnant woman, and her children have come out, and there is no harm [to them], he is certainly fined as the husband of the woman lays on him, and he has given through the judges;

23 But if her death will have followed, he will repay a life for a life,

and if there is harm [to them], then you have given life 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, stripe for stripe.

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.

And when a man strikes the eye of his manservant, or the eye of his handmaid, and has destroyed it, he sends him away as a freeman for his eye;

27 Likewise, if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female servant, he shall similarly release them freely.

and if he knocks out a tooth of his manservant or a tooth of his handmaid, he sends him away as a freeman for 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.

And when an ox gores man or woman, and they have died, the ox is certainly stoned, and his flesh is not eaten, and the owner of the ox [is] acquitted;

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.

and if the ox is [one] accustomed to gore before, and it has been testified to its owner, and he does not watch it, and it has put to death a man or woman, the ox is stoned, and its owner is also 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 atonement is laid on him, then he has given the ransom of his life, according to all that is laid on him;

31 Likewise, if it has struck a son or a daughter with its horns, it shall be subject to a similar verdict.

whether it gores a son or gores a daughter, according to this judgment it is done to him.

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 ox gores a manservant or a handmaid, he gives thirty silver shekels to their lord, and the ox is stoned.

33 If a man digs or opens a cistern, and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

And when a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit, and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey has fallen [in] there—

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 pit repays, he gives back money to its owner, and the dead is 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 when a man’s ox strikes the ox of his neighbor and it has died, then they have sold the living ox, and halved its money, and they also halve 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.”

or, [if] it has been known that the ox is [one] accustomed to gore before, and its owner does not watch it, he certainly repays ox for ox, and the dead is his.