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Exodus 21

1“These are the judgments you must set before them.

2“When you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve for six years, and in the seventh he will go out free, without payment. 3If he comes in alone, he will go out alone; if he is a married man, his wife will go out with him. 4If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and he will go out alone. 5But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6his master must bring him before God. He must bring him to the door or doorpost, and his master must pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will serve him forever.

7“When a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she must not go out as the male slaves do. 8If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master, who designated her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people, because he has acted faithlessly toward her. 9If he designates her for his son, he must treat her according to the rights of daughters. 10If he takes another woman for himself, he must not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11If he does not do these three things for her, she will go out without payment, without silver.

12“Whoever strikes a person so that the person dies must be put to death. 13But if he did not lie in wait, and God let it come into his hand, I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. 14But if someone acts deliberately against his neighbor to kill him by cunning, you must take him even from my altar to die.

15“Whoever strikes his father or mother must be put to death. 16Whoever kidnaps a person, whether he has sold him or the person is still found in his hand, must be put to death. 17Whoever curses his father or mother must be put to death.

18“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but takes to his bed, 19if he rises and walks about outside with his staff, the one who struck him will be acquitted. But he must pay for his lost time and provide for his healing.

20“When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, the slave must be avenged. 21But if the slave survives a day or two, the slave must not be avenged, for the slave is his money.

22“When men fight and strike a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but no harm occurs, the one responsible must be fined as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he must pay as the judges determine. 23But if harm occurs, you must give life for life, 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

26“When a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he must let the slave go free in compensation for the eye. 27If he knocks out the tooth of his male or female slave, he must let the slave go free in compensation for the tooth.

28“When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the ox's owner will be acquitted. 29But if the ox has been accustomed to goring and its owner was warned but did not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, the ox must be stoned, and its owner also must be put to death. 30If a ransom is imposed on him, he must give whatever is imposed on him as the redemption of his life. 31Whether it gores a son or a daughter, it must be dealt with according to this judgment. 32If the ox gores a male or female slave, he must give their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned.

33“When a man leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it, 34the pit's owner must make restitution. He must return silver to the animal's owner, and the dead animal will be his. 35When one man's ox strikes his neighbor's ox and it dies, they must sell the live ox and divide its silver; they must also divide the dead animal. 36But if it was known that the ox had been accustomed to goring, yet its owner did not restrain it, he must make full restitution, ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.

Translation notes 10

21:2–11 — Slavery. These laws regulate actual ownership, purchase, family separation, and release. They do not abolish slavery. The male Hebrew slave's six-year provision and the daughter sold for a household marriage arrangement are treated differently; the draft does not hide that difference by calling all of them hired workers.

21:6 — Before God; forever. The Hebrew elohim can be understood here as God or as judges acting in a religious legal setting. “Forever” describes enduring service; “for life” is a contextual alternative. The text does not state the slave's age or promise his family's freedom.

21:8 — For himself. The traditional read-aloud form has “for himself,” adopted here; the written consonants have “not,” giving “who did not designate her.” The Samaritan Hebrew text compared also has a negative clause, with a different verb form. The positive reading is therefore a choice within the received tradition, not an undisputed correction. Redemption means release through payment, not an automatic right to a free departure at this point.

21:10–11 — Marital rights. The third provision is traditionally understood as conjugal rights, though its rare Hebrew noun is disputed. The three things most naturally refer to the food, clothing, and marital provision just named; another interpretation connects them with the arrangements in verses 8–9.

21:13 — God let it come into his hand. The text attributes the unintended encounter to God while distinguishing it from premeditated killing. The physical expression is retained without adding a full doctrine of providence.

21:19 — Acquitted. Here this concerns liability for a potentially fatal assault once the victim can get about again; payment for lost time and healing remains required. The verse does not declare the assault morally harmless.

21:20–21 — Avenged; his money. The law differentiates an immediate death from survival for a day or two and explicitly grounds the distinction in the owner's property interest. The precise form of vengeance is unstated here. The reading does not soften “his money” into a statement that the owner is merely the victim's employer.

21:22–25 — Her children come out; harm. This describes a pregnancy disrupted by violence. Interpreters differ between miscarriage followed by no further harm to the woman, and premature delivery with harm assessed for mother and child. The Hebrew does not explicitly identify whose harm is meant. The ancient Greek version instead distinguishes an unformed from a formed child; that distinction is not stated in this Hebrew wording. The draft retains the Hebrew uncertainty rather than inserting either a surviving child or the mother's death. The penalties remain explicit; the passage does not directly address an intentionally sought abortion.

21:32 — Thirty shekels. This is a weight of silver paid to the slave's master; it is not a modern coin denomination. The different legal treatment of a slave and a free victim is retained.

21:36 — Numbering. The Hebrew chapter's next verse appears here at 22:1, following familiar English chapter divisions. No law has been dropped.