Exodus 20–23

CHAPTER 20

The Commandments of Yahweh

¹Then God spoke all these words, saying,

²“^aI am Yahweh your God, ^bwho brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ¹slavery.

³“^aYou shall have no other ^bgods ¹before Me.

⁴“^aYou shall not make for yourself ¹an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

⁵“^aYou shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a ^bjealous God, ^cvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁶but showing lovingkindness to ^athousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁷“^aYou shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not ¹leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

⁸“Remember ^athe sabbath day, to keep it holy.

⁹“^aSix days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it ^ayou shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female slave or your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates.

¹¹“^aFor in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²“^aHonor your father and your mother, that your ^bdays may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

¹³“^aYou shall not murder.

¹⁴“^aYou shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵“^aYou shall not steal.

¹⁶“^aYou shall not bear false witness against your ^bneighbor.

¹⁷“^aYou shall not covet your neighbor’s house; ^byou shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

^18aAnd all the people perceived the ¹thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and the people perceived it, and they shook and stood at a distance.

^19aThen they said to Moses, “Speak ¹to us yourself, and we will listen; but let not God speak ²to us, lest we die.”

²⁰And Moses said to the people, “^aDo not be afraid; for God has come in order ^bto test you, and in order that ^cthe fear of Him may ¹be with you, so that you may not sin.”

²¹So the people stood at a distance, but Moses came near ^athe dense gloom where God was.

²²Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that ^aI have spoken ¹to you from heaven.

²³‘^aYou shall not make other gods besides Me; ^bgods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.

²⁴‘You shall make ^aan altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your ^bburnt offerings and your ^cpeace offerings, ^dyour sheep and your oxen; in every place ^ewhere I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

²⁵‘And if you make an altar of stone for Me, ^ayou shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.

²⁶‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that ^ayour nakedness will not be exposed on it.’

CHAPTER 21

Judgments About Slaves

¹“Now these are the ^ajudgments which you are to set before them:

²“If you buy ^aa Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

³“If he comes ¹alone, he shall go out ²alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴“If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out ¹alone.

⁵“But ^aif the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’

⁶then his master shall bring him to ¹God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. Then his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

⁷“^aAnd if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to ¹go free ^bas the male slaves ²do.

⁸“If she is ¹displeasing in the eyes of her master ²who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his treachery to her.

⁹“And if he designates her for his son, he shall do to her according to the custom of daughters.

¹⁰“If he takes for himself another woman, he may not reduce her ¹food, her clothing, or ^aher conjugal rights.

¹¹“And if he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Judgments About Personal Injuries

¹²“^aHe who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.

¹³“^aBut ¹if he did not lie in wait for him, but ^bGod let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.

¹⁴“^aIf, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him by deceit, you shall take him even from My altar, that he may die.

¹⁵“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶“^aHe who ¹kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷“^aAnd he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸“And if men contend with each other and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but ¹remains in bed,

¹⁹if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for ¹his loss of time, and ²he shall take care of him until he is completely healed.

²⁰“And if a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies ¹at his hand, he shall surely ²be punished.

²¹“But if for a day or two he is able to stand, no punishment shall be taken; ^afor he is his ¹property.

²²“And if men struggle with each other and ¹strike a woman with child so that ²she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband ³will set for him, and he shall ^apay ⁴as the judges decide.

²³“But if there is any further injury, ^athen you shall pay life for life,

^24aeye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.

²⁶“And if a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and ruins it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

²⁷“And if he ¹knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

²⁸“And if an ox gores a man or a woman ¹to death, ^athe ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.

²⁹“If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it puts a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.

³⁰“If a ransom is ¹demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is ²demanded of him.

³¹“Whether it gores a son or ¹a daughter, it shall be done to him according to ²the same judgment.

³²“If the ox gores a male or female slave, ¹the owner shall give his or her master ^2athirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

³⁴the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall ¹give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.

³⁵“And if one man’s ox ¹hurts another’s so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price equally; and also they shall divide the dead ox.

³⁶“Or if it is known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.

CHAPTER 22

Judgments About Property Rights

¹“¹If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and ^afour sheep for the sheep.

²“¹If the ^athief is ²caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no bloodguiltiness on his account.

³“But if the sun has risen on him, there will be bloodguiltiness on his account. He shall surely make restitution; if he owns nothing, then he shall be ^asold for his theft.

⁴“If what he stole is actually found alive in his hand, whether an ox or a donkey or a sheep, ^ahe shall pay double.

⁵“If a man lets a field or vineyard be grazed bare and lets his animal loose so that it grazes in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.

⁶“If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or the standing grain or the field itself is consumed, he who started the fire shall surely make restitution.

⁷“^aIf a man gives his neighbor money or goods to keep for him and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is ¹caught, he shall pay double.

⁸“If the thief is not ¹caught, then the owner of the house shall ²appear before ^3athe judges to determine whether he ⁴laid his hands on his neighbor’s property.

⁹“For every ¹breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any lost thing about which one says, ‘This is it,’ the ²case of both parties shall come before ^3athe judges; he whom ⁴the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.

¹⁰“If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is injured or is driven away while no one is looking,

¹¹then an ^aoath before Yahweh shall be made by the two of them ¹that he has not ²laid hands on his neighbor’s property; and its owner shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution.

¹²“But if it is actually stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner.

¹³“Now if it is all torn to pieces, let him bring it as evidence; he shall not make restitution for what has been torn to pieces.

¹⁴“If a man ¹borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution.

¹⁵“But if its owner is with it, he shall not make restitution; if it is hired, it came for its hire.

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