< Exodus 21 >

1 And these [are] the judgments which you set before them:
These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
2 When you buy a Hebrew servant, he serves [for] six years, and in the seventh he goes out as a freeman for nothing;
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee: in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3 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;
With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.
4 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.
But if his master gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daughters: the woman and her children shall be her master’s: but he himself shall go out with his raiment.
5 And if the servant really says: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons—I do not go out free,
And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:
6 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.
His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his servant for ever.
7 And when a man sells his daughter for a handmaid, she does not go out according to the going out of the menservants;
If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bondwomen are wont to go out.
8 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.
If she displease the eyes of her master to whom she was delivered, he shall let her go: but he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign nation, if he despise her.
9 And if he betroths her to his son, he does to her according to the right of daughters.
But if he have betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10 If he takes another [woman] for him, he does not withdraw her food, her covering, and her habitation;
And if he take another wife for him, he shall provide her a marriage, and raiment, neither shall he refuse the price of her chastity.
11 and if he does not do these three for her, then she has gone out for nothing, without money.
If he do not these three things, she shall go out free without money.
12 He who strikes a man so that he has died is certainly put to death;
He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.
13 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.
But he that did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands: I will appoint thee a place to which he must flee.
14 And when a man presumes against his neighbor to slay him with subtlety, you take him from My altar to die.
If a man kill his neighbour on set purpose and by lying in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my altar, that he may die.
15 And he who strikes his father or his mother is certainly put to death.
He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.
16 And he who steals a man, and has sold him, and he has been found in his hand, is certainly put to death.
He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of guilt, shall be put to death.
17 And he who is reviling his father or his mother is certainly put to death.
He that curseth his father, or mother, shall die the death.
18 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;
If men quarrel, and the one strike his neighbour with a stone or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
19 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.
If he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, he that struck him shall be quit, yet so that he make restitution for his work, and for his expenses upon the physicians.
20 And when a man strikes his manservant or his handmaid with a rod, and he has died under his hand—he is certainly avenged;
He that striketh his bondman or bondwoman with a rod, and they die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime.
21 only if he remains a day, or two days, he is not avenged, for he [is] his money.
But if the party remain alive a day or two, he shall not be subject to the punishment, because it is his money.
22 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;
If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child, and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman’s husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award.
23 and if there is harm [to them], then you have given life for life,
But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life.
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26 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;
If any man strike the eye of his manservant or maidservant, and leave them but one eye, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out.
27 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.
Also if he strike out a tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he shall in like manner make them free.
28 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;
If an ox gore a man or a woman, and they die, he shall be stoned: and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29 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.
But if the ox was wont to push with his horn yesterday and the day before, and they warned his master, and he did not shut him up, and he shall kill a man or a woman: then the ox shall be stoned, an his owner also shall be put to death.
30 If atonement is laid on him, then he has given the ransom of his life, according to all that is laid on him;
And if they set a price upon him, he shall give for his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
31 whether it gores a son or gores a daughter, according to this judgment it is done to him.
If he have gored a son, or a daughter, he shall fall under the like sentence.
32 If the ox gores a manservant or a handmaid, he gives thirty silver shekels to their lord, and the ox is stoned.
If he assault a bondman or a bond woman, he shall give thirty sicles of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 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—
If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall into it,
34 the owner of the pit repays, he gives back money to its owner, and the dead is his.
The owner of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.
35 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;
If one man’s ox gore another man’s ox, and he die: they shall sell the live ox, and shall divide the price, and the carcass of that which died they shall part between them:
36 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.
But if he knew that his ox was wont to push yesterday and the day before, and his master did not keep him in: he shall pay ox for ox, and shall take the whole carcass.

< Exodus 21 >