The Bible

Exodus Chapter 21

¹"Now these are the ordinances which you must set before them.

²"If you buy a Hebrew servant, let him serve for six years, and in the seventh let him go free without paying anything. ³If he starts by himself, let him finish by himself. If he is married, then let his wife go free with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will be her master's, and he'll go free by himself. ⁵But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go free;' ⁶then his master will bring him to God, and bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will bore his ear through with an awl, and he'll serve him for ever.

⁷"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shan't go out as the male servants do. ⁸If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He'll have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. ⁹If he marries her to his son, he must treat her as a daughter. ¹⁰If he gets another wife, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. ¹¹If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.

¹²"Anyone who strikes a man so that he dies must surely be put to death, ¹³but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen; then I will appoint you a place where he may flee. ¹⁴If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, remove him from my altar, so he may die.

¹⁵"Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be surely put to death.

¹⁶"Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he must surely be put to death.

¹⁷"Anyone who curses his father or his mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁸"If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed; ¹⁹if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him will be cleared; only he must pay for the loss of his time, and provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.

²⁰"If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a staff, and he dies by his hand, he must surely be punished. ²¹Except, if he gets up after a day or two, he is not to be punished, for he is his property.

²²"If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he must surely be fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow. ²³But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.

²⁶"If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he must let him go free for his eye's sake. ²⁷If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female servant's tooth, he must let him go free for his tooth's sake.

²⁸"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must surely be stoned, and its flesh mustn't be eaten; but the owner of the bull won't be held responsible. ²⁹But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and this has been testified to its owner, but he has not kept it in, and it has killed a man or a woman, the bull must be stoned, and its owner must also be put to death. ³⁰If a ransom is imposed on him, then he must give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed. ³¹Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, it must be done to him according to this judgment. ³²If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver must be given to their master, and the ox stoned.

³³"If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴the owner of the pit is to make it good. He must give money to its owner, and the dead animal will be his.

³⁵"If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then let them sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they must also divide the dead animal. ³⁶Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he must surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal will be his.