21“Now these are the ^hrules that you shall set before them. ²ⁱWhen you buy a Hebrew slave,¹ he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. ³If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. ⁵But ^jif the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ⁶then his master shall bring him to ^kGod, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

⁷“When a man ^lsells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. ⁸If she does not please her master, who has designated her² for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. ⁹If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or ^mher marital rights. ¹¹And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

¹²ⁿ“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. ¹³^oBut if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then ^pI will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. ¹⁴But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, ^qyou shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

¹⁵“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

¹⁶^r“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found ^sin possession of him, shall be put to death.

¹⁷^t“Whoever curses³ his father or his mother shall be put to death.

¹⁸“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, ¹⁹then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.

²⁰“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. ²¹But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the ^uslave is his money.

²²“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and ^vhe shall pay as the ^wjudges determine. ²³But if there is harm,⁴ then you shall pay ^xlife for life,

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Footnotes

1Or servant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles; also verses 5, 6, 7, 20, 21, 26, 27, 32 (see )
2Or so that he has not designated her
3Or dishonors; Septuagint reviles
4Or so that her children come out and it is clear who was to blame, he shall be fined as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he alone shall pay.23 If it is unclear who was to blame

Cross references

hch. 24:3; Deut. 4:14; 6:1
i Deut. 15:12; Jer. 34:14; See Lev. 25:39–41
j Deut. 15:16, 17
k[Ps. 82:6; John 10:34, 35]
l Neh. 5:5
m 1 Cor. 7:5
n Gen. 9:6; Lev. 24:17; Num. 35:30, 31; [Matt. 26:52]
o Deut. 19:4, 5; See Num. 35:22–25
p Num. 35:11; Deut. 4:41–43; 19:2, 3; See Josh. 20:2–9
qSee 1 Kgs. 2:28–34
r Deut. 24:7; 1 Tim. 1:10
sch. 22:4
t Lev. 20:9; Deut. 27:16; Cited Matt. 15:4; Mark 7:10; [Prov. 20:20; 30:11]
u[Lev. 25:45, 46]
v[Deut. 22:18, 19]
w[Job 31:11]
x Deut. 19:21