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,