< Exodus 21 >
1 And these are the laws of justice which thou shalt set before them.
2 If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he was the husband of a woman, then shall his wife go out with him.
4 If his master should give him a wife, and she bear him sons or daughters: the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out by himself.
5 And if the servant should plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
6 Then shall his master bring him unto the judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him till the jubilee.
7 And if a man sell his daughter for a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants go out.
8 If she please not her master, to whom he hath assigned her, then shall he aid her to be redeemed: unto a strange nation he shall have no power to sell her, seeing he hath dealt faithlessly with her.
9 And if he should assign her unto his son, then shall he do unto her after the right of the daughters.
10 If he take himself another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
11 And if he do not these three things unto her, then shall she go out free, without money.
12 He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall surely be put to death.
13 And if he did not lie in wait, but God let it come into his hand, then will I appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
14 But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile, from my altar shalt thou take him, that he may die.
15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, and he be found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.
17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
18 And if men strive together, and one smite the other with a stone, or with the fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
19 If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his crutch, then shall he that smote him be quit; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
20 And if a man smite his servant or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, it shall be surely avenged.
21 Nevertheless, if he continue alive a day or two, it shall not be avenged; for he is his money.
22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her children depart from her, and yet no farther mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, [with a fine, ] according as the husband of the woman will lay upon him; and he shall pay this by the decision of the judges.
23 And if any mischief follow, then shalt thou give life for life.
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
26 And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye.
27 And if he strike out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth.
28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, that he die: then shall the ox be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29 But if the ox were wont to gore in time past, and warning have been given to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, and he killeth a man or a woman: the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also should of right be put to death;
30 But there shall be laid on him a sum of money in atonement, and he shall give the ransom of his life whatsoever may be laid upon him.
31 If he gore a son, or gore a daughter, according to this judgment shall be done unto him.
32 If the ox gore a man-servant or a maid-servant, thirty shekels of silver shall he give to his master, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 And if a man open a pit, or if a man dig a pit, and do not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein:
34 The owner of the pit shall make it good, he shall make restitution in money unto the owner thereof; and the dead beast shall be his.
35 And if one man's ox hurt the ox of another, that he die: then shall they sell the live ox, and divide his money; and the dead ox also they shall divide.
36 But if it be known that the ox was wont to gore in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in: he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall belong to him.