Exodus 21

1 “Now these are the decrees that you must set before them:

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

2 'If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, and in the seventh year he will go free without paying anything.

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

3 If he came by himself, he must go free by himself; if he is married, then his wife must go free with him.

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 If his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and he must go free by himself.

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 But if the servant plainly says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,”

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 master must bring him to God. The master must bring him to a door or doorpost, and his master must bore his ear through with an awl. Then the servant will serve him for life.

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 a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she must not go free as the male servants do.

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 does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be bought back. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people. He has no such right, since he has treated her deceitfully.

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 If her master designates her as a wife for his son, he must treat her the same as if she were his daughter.

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

10 If he takes another wife for himself, he must not diminish her food, clothing, or her marital rights.

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

11 But if he does not provide these three things for her, then she can go free without paying any 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 so that he dies, that person must surely be put to death.

He who strikes a man so that he has died is certainly put to death;

13 If the man did not do it with premeditation, but instead by accident, then I will fix a place to where he can 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 a man willfully attacks his neighbor and kills him according to a cunning plan, then you must take him, even if he is at God's 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 hits his father or mother must surely be put to death.

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

16 Whoever kidnaps a person—whether the kidnapper sells him, or that person is found in his hand—that kidnapper must 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 curses his father or his mother must surely be put to death.

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

18 If men fight and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist, and that person does not die, but is confined to his 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 then if he recovers and is able to walk about using his staff, the man who struck him must pay for the loss of his time; he must also pay for his complete recovery. But that man is not guilty of murder.

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 If a man hits his male servant or his female servant with a staff, and if the servant dies as a result of the blow, then that man must surely be punished.

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 However, if the servant lives for a day or two, the master must not be punished, for he will have suffered the loss of the servant.

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

22 If men fight together and hurt a pregnant woman so that she miscarries, but there is no other injury to her, then the guilty man must surely be fined as the woman's husband demands it from him, and he must pay as the judges determine.

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 there is serious injury, then you must give 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 burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, or a bruise for a bruise.

burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26 If a man hits the eye of his male servant or of his female servant and destroys it, then he must let the servant go free in compensation for his eye.

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 If he knocks out a tooth of his male servant or female servant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

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 gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its flesh must not be eaten; but the ox's owner must be acquitted of guilt.

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 a habit of goring in the past, and its owner was warned but did not keep it in, and the ox has killed a man or a woman, that ox must be stoned, and its owner also must be put to death.

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 If a payment is required for his life, he must pay whatever he is required to pay.

If atonement is laid on him, then he has given the ransom of his life, according to all that is laid on him;

31 If the ox has gored a man's son or daughter, the ox's owner must do what this decree requires him to do.

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

32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the ox's owner must pay thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must 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 opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit 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 the owner of the pit must repay the loss. He must give money to the dead animal's owner, and the dead animal will become his.

the owner of the pit repays, he gives back money to its owner, and the dead is his.

35 If one man's ox hurts another man's ox so that it dies, then they must sell the live ox and divide its price, and they must also divide the dead ox.

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 it was known that the ox had a habit of goring in time past, and its owner has not kept it in, he must surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal will become his own.

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.