Exodus 21

Laws concerning Hebrew Servants

1“And these are the judgments that you will set before them: 2If you acquire a Hebrew servant, six years he will serve, but in the seventh he will go out free, without payment. 3If he came in by himself, he will go out by himself. If he was husband of a wife, then his wife will go out with him. 4If 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 will 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 will bring him to God. He will bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve him permanently.

A Daughter Sold as a Servant

7“And if a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will 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 will let her be redeemed. He will 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 will deal with her according to the rights of daughters. 10If he takes another wife for himself, he will not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11If he does not do these three things for her, she will go out free, without payment of silver.

Laws concerning Violence

12“Whoever strikes a person so that he dies will 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 will take him from my altar to die. 15Whoever strikes his father or his mother will surely be put to death. 16Whoever kidnaps a person, whether he sells that person or the person is found in his hand, will surely be put to death. 17Whoever curses his father or his mother will 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 will be cleared. Only he will pay for his loss of time and will 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 will surely be avenged. 21But if the servant survives a day or two, he will 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 will surely be fined, according to what the woman’s husband lays upon him, and he will pay as the judges determine. 23But if there is harm, then you will 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 will let the servant go free because of the eye. 27And if he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or female servant, he will 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 will surely be stoned and its flesh will not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will 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 will be stoned and its owner also will be put to death. 30If a ransom is imposed upon him, then he will 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 will be done to him. 32If the ox gores a male servant or female servant, thirty shekels of silver will be given to the servant’s master, and the ox will 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 will make restitution. He will give silver to its owner, and the dead animal will become his. 35And if one man’s ox injures another’s ox so that it dies, they will sell the live ox and divide its silver, and they will 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 will surely make restitution, ox for ox, and the dead animal will become his.