Exodus 21
1 And these
are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.
2 If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six
years shall he serve thee, and in the seventh year he shall go forth free for
nothing. 3 If he should have come in
alone, he shall also go forth alone; and if his wife should have gone in
together with him, his wife also shall go out.
4 Moreover, if his master give him a
wife, and she have born him sons or daughters, the
wife and the children shall be his master's; and he shall go forth alone.
5 And if the servant should answer and
say, I love my master and wife and children, I
aGr. do not run away.will not go away free; 6 his master
shall bring him to the judgment-seat of God, and then shall he bring him to
the door,—to the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an
awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
7 And if any one sell his daughter as
a domestic, she shall not depart as the maid-servants depart.
8 If she be not pleasing to her
master,
bGr. who has.after she has betrothed herself to him, he shall let her go free; but he is
not at liberty to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has trifled with
her. 9 And if he should have betrothed
her to his son, he shall do to her according to the right of daughters.
10 And if he take another to himself,
he shall not deprive her of necessaries and her apparel, and her companionship
with him.
11 And if he will not do these three
things to her, she shall go out free without money.
12 And if any man smite another and
he die, let him be certainly put to death.
13 But as for him that did it not
willingly, but God delivered him into his hands, I will give thee a place
whither the slayer may flee. 14 And
if any one lie in wait for his neighbour to slay him by craft, and he go for
refuge, thou shalt take him from my altar to put him to death.
15 Whoever smites his father or his
mother, let him be certainly put to death.
16 He that reviles his father or his
mother shall surely die. 17 Whosoever
shall steal one of the children of Israel, and prevail over him and sell him,
and he be found with him, let him
cMat. 15. 4.
certainly die. 18 And if two men
revile each other and smite the one the other with a stone or his fist, and he
die not, but be laid upon his bed;
19 if the man arise and walk abroad
on his staff, he that smote him shall be clear; only he shall pay for his loss
of time, and for his healing. 20 And
if a man smite his man-servant or his maid-servant, with a rod, and
the party die under his hands, he shall be surely
punished. 21 But if
the servant continue to live a day or two, let not
the master be punished; for he is his money.
22 And if two men strive and smite a
woman with child, and her child be born imperfectly formed, he shall be forced
to pay a penalty: as the woman's husband may lay upon him, he shall pay with a
valuation. 23 But if it be perfectly
formed, he shall give life for life,
24 dMat. 5. 38.
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burning for burning, wound for
wound, stripe for stripe. 26 And if
one smite the eye of his man-servant, or the eye of his maid-servant, and put
it out, he shall let them go free for their eye's sake.
27 And if he should smite out the
tooth of his man-servant, or the tooth of his maid-servant, he shall send them
away free for their tooth's sake.
28 And if a bull gore a man or woman
and
eOr, heor she die.they die, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and his flesh shall not be
eaten; but the owner of the bull shall be clear.
29 But if the bull should have been
given to goring in former time, and men should have told his owner, and he
have not removed him, but he should have slain a man or woman, the bull shall
be stoned, and his owner shall die also.
30 And if a ransom should be imposed
on him, he shall pay for the ransom of his soul as much as they shall lay upon
him. 31 And if
the bull gore a son or daughter, let them do to him
according to this ordinance. 32 And
if the bull gore a man-servant or maid-servant, he shall pay to their master
thirty silver didrachms, and the bull shall be stoned.
33 And if any one open a pit or dig a
cavity in stone, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall in there,
34 the owner of the pit shall make
compensation; he shall give money to their owner, and the dead shall be his
own. 35 And if any man's bull gore
the bull of his neighbour, and it die, they shall sell the living bull and
divide the money, and they shall divide the dead bull.
36 But if the bull be known to have
been given to goring in time past, and they have testified to his owner, and
he have not removed him, he shall repay bull for bull, but the dead shall be
his own.
37 And if one steal
fGr. a calf.an ox or a sheep, and kill it or sell it, he shall pay five calves for a
calf, and four sheep for a sheep.