21:1   "Now these we identify as the ordinances which you will set before them:

21:2   "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.

21:3   "If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he has a wife or she has a husband, then his wife shall go out with him.

21:4   "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 alone.

21:5   "But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

21:6   then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

21:7   " If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she does not have freedom as the male slaves do.

21:8  "If she displeases the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let him redeem her. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her.

21:9   "If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.

21:10   "If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.

21:11   "If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

21:12   " He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely receive the death penalty.

21:13   " But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.

21:14   " If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you will take him even from My altar, that he may die.

21:15   "He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely receive the death penalty.

21:16   " He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or someone finds him in his possession, shall surely receive the death penalty.

21:17   " He who curses his father or his mother shall surely receive the death penalty.

21:18   "If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but remains in bed,

21:19  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 loss of time, and shall take care of him until he has become completely healed.

21:20   "If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall receive punishment.

21:21   "If, however, he survives a day or two, no one shall take vengeance; for he has become his property.

21:22   "If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no injury occurs to her, he shall surely receive a fine as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide.

21:23   "But if there occurs any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,

21:24   eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

21:25   burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

21:26   "If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

21:27   "And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

21:28  "If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, you shall surely stone the ox and not eat its flesh; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.

21:29   "If, however, an ox had previously exhibited the habit of goring and its owner had received a warning, yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman, you shall stone the ox and put its owner also to death.

21:30   "If they demand a ransom of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever they demand of him.

21:31  "Whether it gores a son or a daughter, he shall receive the same penalty according to the same rule.

21:32   "If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and you shall stone the ox .

21:33   "If a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

21:34   the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.

21:35   "If one man's ox 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 dead ox.

21:36   "Or if people know that the ox had previously exhibited the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.