Exodus 21

Modern

Literal

Hebrew Servants

¹“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:

¹“ And these are the judgments that you shall set before their faces:

²If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.

²If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out as the free for nothing.

³If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him.

³If he comes in by himself, by himself he shall go out; if he is husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

⁴If his lord gives to him a wife, and she bears to him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be unto her lord, and he shall go out by himself.

⁵But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’

⁵And if the servant surely declares, ‘I love my lord, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’

⁶then his master is to bring him before the judges.^a And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

⁶then his lord shall bring him to the judges. And He shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his lord shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

⁷And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do.

⁷And if a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the manservants go out.

⁸If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who had designated her for himself,^a he must allow her to be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, since he has broken faith with her.

⁸If she is displeasing in the eyes of her lord who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall redeem her. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, in his dealing deceitfully with her.

⁹And if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her as with a daughter.

⁹And if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the judgment of the daughters.

¹⁰If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of his first wife.

¹⁰If he takes another wife for himself, her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights he shall not diminish.

¹¹If, however, he does not provide her with these three things, she is free to go without monetary payment.

¹¹And if he does not do these three for her, then she shall go out free without silver.

Personal Injury Laws

¹²Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.

¹²The one who strikes a man so that he dies must surely be put to death.

¹³If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

¹³And if he did not lie in wait and God caused it to meet his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where there he may flee.

¹⁴But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.

¹⁴But if a man acts presumptuously against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him away from My altar to die.

¹⁵Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁵And the one who strikes his father or his mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁶Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.

¹⁶And the one who steals a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he must surely be put to death.

¹⁷Anyone who curses^a his father or mother must surely be put to death.^b

¹⁷And the one who curses his father or his mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁸If men are quarreling and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed,

¹⁸And if men contend with each other and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die and falls to bed,

¹⁹then the one who struck him shall go unpunished, as long as the other can get up and walk around outside with his staff. Nevertheless, he must compensate the man for his lost work and see that he is completely healed.

¹⁹if he rises again and walks about outside with his staff, then the one who struck him shall be acquitted; only for the loss of his time he shall pay, and for his complete healing.

²⁰If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.

²⁰And if a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be avenged.

²¹However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.

²¹But if he stands a day or two, he shall not be avenged, for he is his silver.

²²If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely,^a but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.

²²And if men fight and strike a pregnant woman and her children come out and there is not harm, he shall surely be fined as the husband of the woman lays upon him, and he shall give through the judges.

²³But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—

²³But if there is harm, then you shall give life for life,

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

²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶If a man strikes and blinds the eye of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.

²⁶And if a man strikes the eye of his manservant or the eye of his maidservant, and he destroys it, he shall send him out free for his eye.

²⁷And if he knocks out the tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

²⁷And if he knocks out the tooth of his manservant or the tooth of his maidservant, he shall send him out free for his tooth.

²⁸If an ox^a gores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible.

²⁸And if an ox gores a man or a woman, and they die, the ox must surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; and the owner of the ox is innocent.

²⁹But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.

²⁹But if the ox itself has a habit of goring from yesterday and the day before yesterday, and it has been made known to his owner, and he has not guarded it, and it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and also its owner shall be put to death.

³⁰If payment is demanded of him instead, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.

³⁰If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give the redemption of his soul according to all that is laid on him.

³¹If the ox gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.

³¹Whether it gores a son or it gores a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.

³²If the ox gores a manservant or maidservant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver^a to the master of that servant, and the ox must be stoned.

³²If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give thirty silver shekels to their lord, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

³³And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit, and he does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in there,

³⁴the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his.

³⁴the owner of the pit shall repay. He shall return silver to its owner, and the dead animal shall be unto him.

³⁵If a man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they must sell the live one and divide the proceeds; they also must divide the dead animal.

³⁵And if the ox of one man strikes the ox of his neighbor and it dies, then they shall sell the living ox and divide its silver, and also the dead ox they shall divide.

³⁶But if it was known that the ox had a habit of goring, yet its owner failed to restrain it, he shall pay full compensation, ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.

³⁶Or if it was known that the ox itself has a habit of goring from yesterday and the day before yesterday, and its owner has not guarded it, he shall surely repay, ox for ox; and the dead animal shall be unto him.