Exodus 21:1–23

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,