Exodus 21

Laws concerning Hebrew Servants

1“And these are the judgments that you shall set before them: 2If you acquire a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, but in the seventh he shall go out free, without payment. 3If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he was husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4If his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out by himself. 5But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6then his master shall bring him to God. He shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him permanently.

A Daughter Sold as a Servant

7“And if a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants go out. 8If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no authority to sell her to a foreign people, because he has acted treacherously against her. 9If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the rights of daughters. 10If he takes another wife for himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11If he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out free, without payment of silver.

Laws concerning Violence

12“Whoever strikes a person so that he dies shall surely be put to death. 13But if he did not lie in wait and God allowed it to meet his hand, I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. 14But if a man acts presumptuously against his neighbor to kill him with cunning, you shall take him from my altar to die. 15Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 16Whoever kidnaps a person, whether he sells that person or the person is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death. 17Whoever curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Injuries in a Fight

18“And if men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but falls into bed, 19if he rises and walks outside with his staff, then the one who struck him shall be cleared. Only he shall pay for his loss of time and shall surely cause him to be healed. 20If a man strikes his male servant or female servant with a rod and the servant dies under his hand, he shall surely be avenged. 21But if the servant survives a day or two, he shall not be avenged, for the servant is his silver.

Injury to a Pregnant Woman

22“And if men fight and strike a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no further harm, he shall surely be fined, according to what the woman’s husband lays upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23But if there is harm, then you shall give life for life, 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

Injury to a Servant

26“And if a man strikes the eye of his male servant or the eye of his female servant and destroys it, he shall let the servant go free because of the eye. 27And if he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or female servant, he shall let the servant go free because of the tooth.

Laws concerning an Ox

28“And if an ox gores a man or woman so that the person dies, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be free from guilt. 29But if the ox was accustomed to gore in the past and its owner had been warned but did not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death. 30If a ransom is imposed upon him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed upon him. 31Whether it gores a son or gores a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. 32If the ox gores a male servant or female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to the servant’s master, and the ox shall be stoned.

Laws concerning Pits and Goring Oxen

33“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it, 34the owner of the pit shall make restitution. He shall give silver to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his. 35And if one man’s ox injures another’s ox so that it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide its silver, and they shall also divide the dead animal. 36Or if it was known that the ox was accustomed to gore in the past and its owner did not restrain it, he shall surely make restitution, ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.