Exodus 21:1-23

Ordinances for the People

¹“Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:

²“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall leave as a free man without a payment to you. ³If he comes alone, he shall leave alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall leave with him. ⁴If 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 leave alone. ⁵But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not leave as a free man,’ ⁶then 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.

⁷“Now if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do. ⁸If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people, because of his unfairness to her. ⁹And if he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. ¹⁰If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. ¹¹But if he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go free for nothing, without payment of money.

Personal Injuries

¹²“He who strikes someone so that he dies shall certainly be put to death. ¹³Yet if he did not lie in wait for him, but God caused him to fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. ¹⁴If, however, someone is enraged against his neighbor, so as to kill him in a cunning way, you are to take him even from My altar, to be put to death.

¹⁵“And one who strikes his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.

¹⁶“Now one who kidnaps someone, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall certainly be put to death.

¹⁷“And one who curses his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.

¹⁸“Now if people have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed, ¹⁹if 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 pay for his care until he is completely healed.

²⁰“And if someone strikes his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies at his hand, he shall be punished. ²¹If, however, the slave survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for the slave is his property.

²²“Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. ²³But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,

Property Rights