Laws Laid Before Them
21 1 Now these are the regulations you are to set before them:
2 When you buy a Hebrew servant, he serves six years; in the seventh he goes free, paying nothing.
3 If he came in alone, he goes out alone; if married, his wife goes out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and children belong to her master, and he goes out alone. 5 But if the servant clearly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' 6 then his master brings him before our Father, then to the door or doorpost, and pierces his ear with an awl; he serves him for life. a a v6 The servant's ear was pierced at the doorpost as a permanent, visible mark of his free choice to belong to his master's household for life.
7 When a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the male servants do. 8 If she does not please her master who chose her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He may not sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. 9 If he designates her for his son, he is to treat her as a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife, he must not reduce her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11 If he does not provide these three things, she goes free, without payment of money.
Life for Life
12 Whoever strikes a man so that he dies is to be put to death. 13 But if he did not lie in wait and I let it happen, I will appoint a place for you where he may flee. 14 But if a man plots against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, take him from my altar to die.
15 Whoever strikes his father or his mother is to be put to death.
16 Whoever kidnaps a man and sells him, or is caught still holding him, must be put to death.
17 Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.
18 When men quarrel and one hits the other with a stone or fist, and the man does not die but is bedridden, 19 then if he gets up and walks outside with his staff, the one who struck him goes unpunished; he must only pay for lost time and for his full recovery.
20 When a man strikes his male or female servant with a rod and the servant dies, he must be avenged. 21 But if he survives a day or two, no vengeance is taken, for the servant is his property.
22 When men fight and strike a pregnant woman so that her child is born, but there is no further harm, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands, and pay as the judges decide. 23 But if there is further harm, then you are to give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, b b v24 This law set a limit on revenge — no more than the injury done. Jesus later transformed it, teaching his followers not to retaliate but to overcome evil with love (Matthew 5:38-39). 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
26 If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he must free the servant to compensate for the eye. 27 If he knocks out his male or female servant's tooth, he must let them go free to compensate for the tooth.
28 If an ox gores a man or woman to death, it must be stoned and its meat not eaten, but its owner is not liable. 29 But if the ox was in the habit of goring and its owner was warned but did not pen it, and it kills a man or woman, the ox is stoned and its owner also is put to death. 30 If a ransom is required, he must pay whatever is demanded to spare his life. 31 Whether it gores a son or daughter, this same rule applies. 32 If the ox gores a male or female servant, the owner pays their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is stoned.
33 If a man opens or digs a pit and leaves it uncovered, and an ox or donkey falls in, 34 the pit's owner must make it good, paying its owner money, and the dead animal is his.
35 When one man's ox injures another's so it dies, they sell the live ox, split the price, and split the dead animal too. 36 But if it was known the ox gored habitually and its owner did not keep it in, he must repay ox for ox, and the dead animal is his.
