Exodus 20–23

Chapter 20

And the Lord spoke all these words:

²I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.

⁴Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.

⁵Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:

⁶And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.

⁷Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.

⁸Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.

⁹Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.

¹⁰But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.

¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

¹²Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayst be long lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.

¹³Thou shalt not kill.

¹⁴Thou shalt not commit adultery.

¹⁵Thou shalt not steal.

¹⁶Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

¹⁷Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

¹⁸And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking; and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off,

¹⁹Saying to Moses: Speak thou to us, and we will hear: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.

²⁰And Moses said to the people: Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of him might be in you, and you should not sin.

²¹And the people stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud wherein God was.

²²And the Lord said to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

²³You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make to yourselves gods of gold.

²⁴You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee.

²⁵And if thou make an altar of stone unto me, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up a tool upon it, it shall be defiled.

²⁶Thou shalt not go up by steps unto my altar, lest thy nakedness be discovered.

Chapter 21

These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

²If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

³With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.

⁴But 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.

⁵And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:

⁶His master shall bring him to the God, 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.

⁷If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bondwomen are wont to go out.

⁸If 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.

⁹But if he have betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

¹⁰And if he take another wife for him, he shall provide her a marriage, and raiment, neither shall he refuse the price of her chastity.

¹¹If he do not these three things, she shall go out free without money.

¹²He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.

¹³But 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.

¹⁴If 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.

¹⁵He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.

¹⁶He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of the guilt, shall be put to death.

¹⁷He that curseth his father or mother, shall die the death.

¹⁸If men quarrel, and the one strike his neighbour with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

¹⁹If 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.

²⁰He that striketh his bondman, or bondwoman, with a rod, and they die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime.

²¹But if the party remain alive a day or two, he shall not be subject to the punishment, because it is his money.

²²If 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.

²³But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life,

²⁴Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶If 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.

²⁷Also if he strike out a tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he shall in like manner make them free.

²⁸If 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.

²⁹But 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, and his owner also shall be put to death.

³⁰And if they set a price upon him, he shall give for his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

³¹If he have gored a son, or a daughter, he shall fall under the like sentence.

³²If he assault a bondman or bondwoman, he shall give thirty sicles of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall into it,

³⁴The owner of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.

³⁵If 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:

³⁶But 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.

Chapter 22

If any man steal an ox or a sheep, and kill or sell it: he shall restore five oxen for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep.

²If a thief be found breaking open a house or undermining it, and be wounded so as to die: he that slew him shall not be guilty of blood.

³But if he did this when the sun is risen, he hath committed murder, and he shall die. If he have not wherewith to make restitution for the theft, he shall be sold.

⁴If that which he stole be found with him, alive, either ox, or ass, or sheep: he shall restore double.

⁵If any man hurt a field or a vineyard, and put in his beast to feed upon that which is other men’s: he shall restore the best of whatsoever he hath in his own field, or in his vineyard, according to the estimation of the damage.

⁶If a fire breaking out light upon thorns, and catch stacks of corn, or corn standing in the fields, he that kindled the fire shall make good the loss.

⁷If a man deliver money, or any vessel unto his friend to keep, and they be stolen away from him that received them: if the thief be found, he shall restore double:

⁸If the thief be not known, the master of the house shall be brought to the God, and shall swear that he did not lay his hand upon his neighbour’s goods,

⁹To do any fraud, either in ox, or in ass, or sheep, or raiment, or any thing that may bring damage: the cause of both parties shall come to the gods: and if they give judgment, he shall restore double to his neighbour.

¹⁰If a man deliver ass, ox, sheep, or any beast, to his neighbour’s custody, and it die, or be hurt, or be taken by enemies, and no man saw it:

¹¹There shall be an oath between them, that he did not put forth his hand to his neighbour’s goods: and the owner shall accept of the oath, and he shall not be compelled to make restitution.

¹²But if it were taken away by stealth, he shall make the loss good to the owner.

¹³If it were eaten by a beast, let him bring to him that which was slain, and he shall not make restitution.

¹⁴If a man borrow of his neighbour any of these things, and it be hurt or die, the owner not being present, he shall be obliged to make restitution.

¹⁵But if the owner be present, he shall not make restitution, especially if it were hired, and came for the hire of his work.

¹⁶If a man seduce a virgin not yet espoused, and lie with her: he shall endow her, and have her to wife.

¹⁷If the maid’s father will not give her to him, he shall give money according to the dowry, which virgins are wont to receive.

¹⁸Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live.

¹⁹Whosoever copulateth with a beast; shall be put to death.

²⁰He that sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord.

²¹Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in…