Exodus — Chapter 21

These are the rules that you shall set before them:

When you acquire a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.

If he came single, he shall leave single; if he had a wife, his wife shall leave with him.

If his master gave him a wife, and she has borne him children, the wife and her children shall belong to the master, and he shall leave alone.

But if the slave declares, “I love my master, and my wife and children: I do not wish to go free,”

his master shall take him before God.abefore God In contrast to others “to the judges.” He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall then remain his master’s slave for life.

When someone sells their daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as other slaves do.

If she proves to be displeasing to her master, who designated her for himself, he must let her be redeemed; he shall not have the right to sell her to outsiders, since he broke faith with her.

And if the master designated her for a son, he shall deal with her as is the practice with free maidens.

If he takes another to wife, he must not withhold from this one her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.bconjugal rights Or “ointments.”

If he fails her in these three ways, she shall go free, without payment.

One who fatally strikes another shall be put to death.

If it was not by design—it came about by an act of God—I will assign you a place to which that person can flee.ca place to which that person can flee The case of a female culprit may have been more complex.

When one person schemes against another and kills through treachery, you shall take that person from My very altar to be put to death.

One who strikes their father or mother shall be put to death.

One who kidnaps another—whether having sold or still holding them—shall be put to death.

One who insultsdinsults Or “reviles.” their father or mother shall be put to death.

When [two] parties quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or fist, and [the victim] does not die but has to take to bed:

if the latter then gets up and walks outdoors upon a staff, the assailant shall go unpunished—except for paying for the idleness and the cure.

When someone strikes their slave, male or female, with a rod, who dies there and then,ethere and then Lit. “under his hand.” this must be avenged.

But if [the victim] survives a day or two, this is not to be avenged, since the one is the other’s property.

When [two or more] parties fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, [the one responsible] shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact, the payment to be based on reckoning.fon reckoning In contrast to others “as the judges determine.”

But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life,

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

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

When someone strikes the eye of their slave, male or female, and destroys it, the slave shall go free on account of the eye.

If [the owner] knocks out the tooth of their slave, male or female, the slave shall go free on account of the tooth.

When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox is not to be punished.

If, however, that ox has been in the habit of goring, and its owner, though warned, has failed to guard it, and it kills a man or a woman—the ox shall be stoned and its owner, too, shall be put to death.

If ransom is imposed to redeem [the owner’s] life, whatever is imposed must be paid.

So, too, if it gores a minor, male or female: it shall be dealt with according to the same rule.

But if the ox gores a slave, male or female, [its owner] shall pay thirty shekels of silver to the master, and the ox shall be stoned.

When someone opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

the one responsible for the pit must make restitution—paying the price to the owner, but keeping the dead animal.

When someone’s ox injures a neighbor’s ox and it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide its price; they shall also divide the dead animal.

If, however, it is known that the ox was in the habit of goring, and its owner has failed to guard it, [that party] must restore ox for ox, but shall keep the dead animal.

gThis verse is labeled as 22.1 in some editions. When someone steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, five oxen shall be paid for the ox, and four sheep for the sheep.—