21:1 “Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:
21:2 “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.
21:3 If he comes ①alone, he shall leave ②alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall leave with him.
▷ ①Lit by himself ②Lit by himself
21:4 If 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 ①alone.
▷ ①Lit by himself
21:5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not leave as a free man,’
21:6 then his master shall bring him to ①God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an ②awl; and he shall serve him permanently.
▷ ①Or the judges (who acted in God’s name) ②I.e., a pointed tool
21:7 “Now if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to ①go free as the male slaves ②do.
▷ ①Lit go out ②Lit go out
21:8 If she is ①displeasing in the eyes of her master ②who 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 ③unfairness to her.
▷ ①Lit bad ②Another reading is so that he did not designate her ③Lit dealing treacherously
21:9 And if he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.
21:10 If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her ①food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.
▷ ①Lit flesh
21:11 But if he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go ①free for nothing, without payment of money.
▷ ①Lit out
21:12 “He who strikes someone so that he dies shall certainly be put to death.
21:13 Yet ①if 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.
▷ ①Lit he who
21:14 If, 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.
21:15 “And one who strikes his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.
21:16 “Now one who ①kidnaps someone, whether he sells him or he is found in his ②possession, shall certainly be put to death.
▷ ①Lit steals ②Lit hand
21:17 “And one who curses his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.
21:18 “Now if people have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die but ①is confined to bed,
▷ ①Lit lies in
21:19 if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his ①loss of time, and ②shall pay for his care until he is completely healed.
▷ ①Lit his sitting ②Lit healing, he shall cause to be healed
21:20 “And if someone strikes his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies ①at his hand, he shall ②be punished.
▷ ①Lit under ②Lit suffer vengeance
21:21 If, however, the slave ①survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for the slave is his ②property.
▷ ①Lit stands ②Lit money
21:22 “Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that ①she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined as the woman’s husband ②may demand of him, and he shall pay ③as the judges decide.
▷ ①Or an untimely birth occurs; lit her children come out ②Lit lays on him ③Lit by arbitration
21:23 But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty 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, ①bruise for bruise.
▷ ①Lit welt
21:26 “And if someone strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let ①the slave go free on account of the eye.
▷ ①Lit him go...his eye
21:27 And if he ①knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let ②the slave go free on account of the tooth.
▷ ①Lit causes to fall ②Lit him go...his tooth
21:28 “Now if an ox gores a man or a woman ①to death, the ox shall certainly be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.
▷ ①Lit so that he dies
21:29 If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it 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 ①demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is ②demanded of him.
▷ ①Lit laid on him ②Lit laid on him
21:31 Whether it gores a son or ①a daughter, it shall be done to him according to ②the same rule.
▷ ①Lit gores a daughter ②Lit this judgment
21:32 If the ox gores a male or female slave, ①the owner shall give his or her master ②thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
▷ ①Lit he ②About 15 oz. or 425 gm
21:33 “Now if someone opens a pit, or ①digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
▷ ①Lit if a man digs
21:34 the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall ①give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.
▷ ①Lit give back
21:35 “And if someone’s ox injures another’s ox so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its proceeds equally; and they shall also divide the dead ox.
21:36 Or if it is known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he must make restitution of ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.