Exodus 21
1 “These are the laws you are to set before them:
2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years. In the seventh year he shall go free, without paying anything.
3 If he came alone, he shall leave alone; if he had a wife, she shall leave with him.
4 If his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall leave alone.
5 But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go free,’
6 then his master shall bring him before God. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve him for life.
7 When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do.
8 If she displeases her master, who had designated her for himself, he shall allow her to be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has acted treacherously toward her.
9 If he designates her for his son, he shall treat her according to the rights of daughters.
10 If he takes another wife for himself, he shall not reduce her food, clothing, or marital rights.
11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she shall go free without payment.
12 Whoever strikes someone and that person dies shall surely be put to death.”
13 “But if he did not do it intentionally, and God allowed it to happen by his hand, I will appoint a place for you where he can flee.
14 If someone deliberately acts against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him away even from my altar, so that he may die.
15 Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
16 Whoever kidnaps someone and sells him, or is found with that person in his possession, shall surely be put to death.
17 Whoever curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18 When two men fight and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, the injured man may not die but may be confined to bed.
19 If he gets up and walks outside with the support of his staff, the one who struck him shall be acquitted. He must only pay for the time lost and ensure his full recovery.
20 If someone strikes his male or female slave with a rod, and the slave dies under his hand, it shall surely be avenged.
21 But if the slave survives for a day or two, it shall not be avenged, because the slave is his property.
22 If men fight and injure a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no further harm, the one who injured her shall surely pay a fine, as much as her husband demands, to be determined by arbitrators.
23 But if there is harm, you shall give life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
26 “If someone strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free in exchange for the eye.
27 If he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let the slave go free in exchange for the tooth.
28 If an ox gores a man or a woman and they die, the ox shall surely be stoned, and its meat shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be innocent.
29 But if the ox was known to gore in the past, and its owner had been warned but did not keep it penned up, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
30 If a ransom is imposed on him, he shall pay whatever is imposed for the redemption of his life.
31 If the ox gores a son or a daughter, the same rule shall apply to it.
32 If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall pay thirty shekels of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 If someone uncovers a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
34 the owner of the pit shall pay. He shall repay the animal’s owner in money, and the dead animal shall be his.
35 If someone’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide the money; they shall also divide the dead ox.
36 But if it was known that the ox had gored in the past and its owner did not keep it penned up, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall be his.
37 If someone steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.”
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