²‘If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing.^a ³If he comes in single, he will go out single. If he is the husband of a wife, his wife will go out with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears for him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and the slave will go out single. ⁵But if the slave explicitly says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,” ⁶his master will present him to God^b and bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve him forever.

⁷“ ‘And if a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she will not go out as male slaves go out. ⁸If she does not please her master^c who selected her, he will allow her to be redeemed; he has no authority to sell her to foreign people, since he has dealt treacherously with her. ⁹And if he selects her for his son, he shall do for her according to the regulations for daughters. ¹⁰If he takes for himself another, he will not reduce her food, her clothing, or her right of cohabitation. ¹¹And if he does not do for her these three, she shall go out for nothing; there will not be silver^d paid for her.

Regulations Regarding Murder, Manslaughter, and Various Injuries

¹²“ ‘Whoever strikes someone^e and he dies will surely be put to death. ¹³But if he did not lie in wait and it was an accident,^f I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. ¹⁴But if a man schemes against his neighbor to kill him by treachery,^g you will take him from my altar to die. ¹⁵And whoever strikes^h his father or his mother will surely be put to death.

¹⁶“ ‘And whoever kidnaps someoneⁱ and sells him, or he is found in his possession,^j he will surely be put to death.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

aOr “for no payment”
bOr “present him to the judges”
cLiterally “bad in the eyes of her master”
dOr “money”
eLiterally “A striker of a man”
fLiterally “and God let him happen to his hand”
gOr “with cunning” or “craftily”
hLiterally “a striker of”
iLiterally “a stealer of a man”
jLiterally “in his hand”