21:1 "Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them. |
21:2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. |
21:3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, 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 be her master's 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 free,' |
21:6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. |
21:7 "When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. |
21:8 If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt faithlessly with her. |
21:9 If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. |
21:10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. |
21:11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money. |
21:12 "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. |
21:13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. |
21:14 But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him treacherously, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die. |
21:15 "Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. |
21:16 "Whoever steals a man, whether he sells him or is found in possession of him, shall be put to death. |
21:17 "Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. |
21:18 "When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but keeps his bed, |
21:19 then if the man rises again and walks abroad with his staff, he that struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed. |
21:20 "When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. |
21:21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be punished; for the slave is his money. |
21:22 "When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. |
21:23 If any harm follows, then you shall give 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, stripe for stripe. |
21:26 "When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free for the eye's sake. |
21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free for the tooth's sake. |
21:28 "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 shall be clear. |
21:29 But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. |
21:30 If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid upon him. |
21:31 If it gores a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. |
21:32 If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. |
21:33 "When a man leaves a pit open, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or an ass falls into it, |
21:34 the owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his. |
21:35 "When one man's ox hurts another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; and the dead beast also they shall divide. |
21:36 Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, |