1 Judgments About Slaves “Now these are the judgments which you are to set before them:
2 “If you buy a 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 21:3Lit by himself alone, he shall go out 21:3Lit by himself alone; 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 21:4Lit by himself alone.
5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’
6 then his master shall bring him to 21:6 Or the judges who acted in God’s name God, 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 “And if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to 21:7Lit go out go free as the male slaves 21:7Lit go out do.
8 If she is 21:8Lit bad displeasing in the eyes of her master 21:8Or so that he did not designate her who 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 21:10Lit flesh food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.
11 And if he will not do these threethingsfor her, then she shall go out for nothing, withoutpayment ofmoney.Judgments About Personal Injuries
12 “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.
13 But 21:13Lit he who if he did not lie in waitfor him, but God lethimfall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.
14 If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him by deceit, you shall take himevenfrom My altar, that he may die.
15 “And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
16 “He who 21:16Lit steals kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.
17 “And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18 “And if men contendwith each otherand one strikes the other with a stone or withhisfist, and he does not die but 21:18Lit lies remains in bed,
19 if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his 21:19 Lit his sitting loss of time, and he 21:19 Lit healing, he shall cause to be healed 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 21:20Lit under at his hand, he shall surely 21:20Lit suffer vengeance be punished.
21 But if for a day or two heis able tostand, no punishment shall be taken; for he is his 21:21Lit money property.
22 “And if men struggle with each other and 21:22Lit smote strike a woman with child so that 21:22Or an untimely birth occurs; lit her children come out she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband 21:22Lit lays on him will set for him, and he shall pay 21:22Lit by arbitration as the judgesdecide.
23 But if there isany furtherinjury, then you shall pay life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.
26 “And if a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and ruins it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.
27 And if he 21:27Lit causes to fall knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.
28 “And if an ox gores a man or a woman 21:28Lit so that he dies to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.
29 If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it puts a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.
30 If a ransom is 21:30Lit laid on him demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is 21:30Lit laid on him demanded of him.
31 Whether it gores a son or 21:31Lit gores a daughter a daughter, it shall be done to him according to 21:31Lit this the same judgment.
32 If the ox gores a male or female slave, 21:32Lit he the owner shall give hisor hermaster 21:32Approx. 12 oz. or 330 gm, a shekel was approx.0.4oz. or 11 gm thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 “And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
34 the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall 21:34Lit give back give money to its owner, and the deadanimalshall become his.
35 “And if one man’s ox 21:35Lit smites hurts another’s so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price equally; and also they shall divide the deadox.
36 Orifit is known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the deadanimalshall become his.