1 "Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them. 2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything. 3 If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, 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 be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;' 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever. 7 "If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do. 8 If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. 9 If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights. 11 If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money. 12 "One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death, 13 but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee. 14 If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die. 15 "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. 16 "Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. 17 "Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 18 "If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed; 19 if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed. 20 "If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. 21 Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property. 22 "If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow. 23 But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise. 26 "If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. 27 If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake. 28 "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible. 29 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death. 30 If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him. 31 Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. 32 If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned. 33 "If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his. 35 "If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal. 36 Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
Laws concerning servants. They shall serve for only seven years, Exodus 21:1, Exodus 21:2. If a servant brought a wife to servitude with him, both should go out free on the seventh year, Exodus 21:3. If his master had given him a wife, and she bore him children, he might go out free an the seventh year, but his wife and children must remain, as the property of the master, Exodus 21:4. If, through love to his master, wife, and children, he did not choose to avail himself of the privilege granted by the law, of going out free on the seventh year, his ear was to be bored to the door post with an awl, as an emblem of his being attached to the family for ever, Exodus 21:5, Exodus 21:6. Laws concerning maid-servants, betrothed to their masters or to the sons of their masters, Exodus 21:7-11. Laws concerning battery and murder, Exodus 21:12-15. Concerning men-stealing, Exodus 21:16. Concerning him that curses his parents, Exodus 21:17. Of strife between man and man, Exodus 21:18, Exodus 21:19; between a master and his servants, Exodus 21:20, Exodus 21:21. Of injuries done to women in pregnancy, Exodus 21:22. The Lex Talionis, or law of like, Exodus 21:23-25. Of injuries done to servants, by which they gain the right of freedom, Exodus 21:26, Exodus 21:27. Laws concerning the ox which has gored men, Exodus 21:28-32. Of the pit left uncovered, into which a man or a beast has fallen, Exodus 21:33, Exodus 21:34. Laws concerning the ox that kills another, Exodus 21:35, Exodus 21:36.
INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 21
In this, and the two following chapters, are delivered various laws and precepts, partly of a moral, and partly of a religious, but chiefly of a civil nature, respecting the commonwealth of Israel, and its political good. This chapter treats of servants, and laws relating to them; to menservants, how long they shall serve, and what is to be done to those who are desirous of staying with their masters after their time is up, Exodus 21:1, to maidservants, and especially betrothed ones, either to a father or a son, Exodus 21:7, likewise it contains laws concerning the slaughter of men, whether with design or unawares, Exodus 21:12, and concerning the ill usage of parents, Exodus 21:15, and man stealing, Exodus 21:16 and of mischief that comes by men's quarrelling and fighting, Exodus 21:18 and by smiting a man or maidservant, Exodus 21:20, to a woman with child, that is, by means of men's striving and contending with each other, Exodus 21:22 and of damages that come by oxen, or to them, Exodus 21:28.
(Exodus 21:1-11) Laws respecting servants.
(Exodus 21:12-21) Judicial laws.
(Exodus 21:22-36) Judicial laws.
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