Laws Concerning Servants
21 “These are the ordinances that you are to set before them.
2 “When you acquire a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, and in the seventh he is to go out a free man without paying anything. 3 If he came in by himself,[a] he is to go out by himself. If he was married, his wife is to go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and children belong to her master, and he is to go out by himself. 5 But if the servant, in fact, says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I won’t go out a free man,’ 6 then his master is to bring him before the judges[b] and he is to bring him to the door or to the doorpost. His master is to pierce his ear with an awl, and he is to serve him permanently.
7 “When a man sells his daughter as a servant, she won’t go out as the male servants do.[c] 8 If she’s displeasing to[d] her master who selected her for himself,[e] he must let her be redeemed. He does not have the right to sell her to foreign people, because he has dealt unfairly[f] with her. 9 If he has selected her for his son,[g] he is to treat her according to the ordinance for daughters. 10 If he takes another woman for himself, he may not withhold from the first[h] her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11 If he does not do these three things for her, she may go out without paying anything at all.”[i]
Laws Concerning Personal Injury and Homicide
12 “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies is certainly to be put to death. 13 If he didn’t lie in wait, but God let him fall into his reach,[j] then I’ll appoint for you a place to which he may flee. 14 If a man acts deliberately against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you are to take him to die even if he’s at[k] my altar.
15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death.
16 “Whoever kidnaps a person, whether he has sold him or whether the victim[l] is still in his possession, is certainly to be put to death.
17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death.
18 “If people quarrel and one strikes the other with a rock or his fist, and he does not die but ends up[m] in bed, 19 and the injured person[n] then gets up and walks around outside with the help of his staff,[o] the one who struck him is not liable, except that he is to compensate him for his loss of time[p] and take care of his complete recovery.
20 “If a man strikes his male or female servant with a stick and he or she dies as a direct result,[q] the master must be punished.[r] 21 But if the servant[s] survives a day or two, the master[t] is not to be punished because the servant[u] is his property.
22 “If two men are fighting and they strike a pregnant woman and her children are born prematurely,[v] but there is no harm, he is certainly to be fined as the husband of the woman demands of him, and he will pay as the court decides.[w] 23 If there is harm, then you are to require[x] life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
26 “If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he is to release him as a free man in exchange for his eye. 27 If he knocks out the tooth of his male[y] or female servant,[z] he is to release him as a free man in exchange for his tooth.
28 “If an ox gores a man or woman so that they die, the ox is certainly to be stoned and its flesh may not be eaten, but the owner of the ox is free from liability. 29 But if the ox has gored previously, and its owner has been warned about it but didn’t restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, the ox is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death. 30 If a fine is imposed on him, he may pay all that was imposed on him as a ransom for his life. 31 This same ordinance applies[aa] if it gores a son or daughter.
32 “If the ox gores a male or female servant, the owner is to give 30 shekels[ab] of silver to the servant’s[ac] master, and the ox is to be stoned. 33 If a man opens a pit or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it,[ad] 34 the owner of the pit is to make restitution. He is to pay money to its owner, and the dead animal will become his.
35 “If a man’s ox strikes his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they are to sell the live ox and divide the money. They also are to divide the dead animal. 36 But if it was known that the ox had gored previously, and its owner didn’t restrain it, he is certainly to repay ox for ox, and the dead ox is to become his.”
Footnotes
- Exodus 21:3 Lit. with his body; i.e. single, and so throughout the chapter
- Exodus 21:6 Or before God
- Exodus 21:7 The Heb. lacks as the male servants do
- Exodus 21:8 Lit. bad in the eyes of
- Exodus 21:8 I.e. as a secondary wife also called a mistress or concubine
- Exodus 21:8 Or treacherously
- Exodus 21:9 I.e. as a secondary wife also called a mistress or concubine
- Exodus 21:10 The Heb. lacks from the first
- Exodus 21:11 The Heb. lacks at all
- Exodus 21:13 Lit. hand; i.e. the event was not premeditated by the accused
- Exodus 21:14 Lit. even from
- Exodus 21:16 Lit. he
- Exodus 21:18 Lit. falls
- Exodus 21:19 Lit. he
- Exodus 21:19 Lit. with his staff
- Exodus 21:19 Lit. his rest
- Exodus 21:20 Lit. under his hand
- Exodus 21:20 Lit. suffer vengeance
- Exodus 21:21 Lit. he
- Exodus 21:21 Lit. he
- Exodus 21:21 Lit. he
- Exodus 21:22 Lit. children come out
- Exodus 21:22 Or according to the assessment
- Exodus 21:23 Lit. give
- Exodus 21:27 Lit. male servant
- Exodus 21:27 Lit. tooth of his female servant
- Exodus 21:31 Lit. It shall be done to him according to this ordinance
- Exodus 21:32 I.e., a unit of weight equal to about 16 barley grains; about 0.025 ounces or 0.5 grams; cf. Num 3:47; Num 18:16
- Exodus 21:32 Lit. his
- Exodus 21:33 Lit. there