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The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Exodus 21
1 “Now these are the ordinances which
you shall set before them:
2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall
serve six years, and in the seventh he shall
go out free without paying anything.
3 Ifhe comes inbyhimself, he shall go out
by himself. If he is married, then his wife
shall go out with him.
4 If his master gives him a wife and she
bears him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her master’s, and he
shall go out by himself.
5 But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I
love my master, my wife, and my children.
I will not go out free;’
6 then his master shall bring him to God,
and shall bring him to the door or to the
doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through with an awl, and he shall serve
him forever.
7 “If a man sells his daughter to be a
female servant, she shall not go out as the
male servants do.
8 If she doesn’t please her master, who
has married her to himself, then he shall
let her be redeemed. He shall haveno right
to sell her to a foreign people, since he has
dealt deceitfully with her.
9 If he marries her to his son, he shall
deal with her as a daughter.
10 If he takes another wife to himself, he
shall not diminish her food, her clothing,
and her marital rights.
11 If he doesn’t do these three things for
her, she may go free without paying any
money.
12 “One who strikes a man so that he dies
shall surely be put to death,
13 but not if it is unintentional, but God
allows it to happen; then I will appoint you
a place where he shall flee.
14 If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you
shall take him from my altar, that he may
die.
15 “Anyone who attacks his father or his
mother shall be surely put to death.
16 “Anyone who kidnaps someone and
sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he
shall surely be put to death.
17 “Anyone who curses his father or his
mother shall surely be put to death.
18 “If men quarrel and one strikes the
other with a stone, or with his fist, and he
doesn’t die, but is confined to bed;
19 if he rises again and walks around
with his staff, then he who struck him shall
be cleared; only he shall pay for the loss of
his time, and shall provide for his healing
until he is thoroughly healed.
20 “If a man strikes his servant or his
maid with a rod, and he dies under his
hand, the man shall surely be punished
21 Notwithstanding,
if his servant gets up
after aday or two, he shallnotbepunished,
for the servant is his property.
22 “If men fight and hurt a pregnant
woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall
be surely fined as much as the woman’s
husband demands and the judges allow.
23 Butif any harm follows, then you must
take life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot,
25 burning for burning, wound for
wound, and bruise for bruise.
26 “If a man strikes his servant’s eye, or
his maid’s eye, and destroys it, he shall let
him go free for his eye’s sake.
27 If he strikes out his male servant’s
tooth, or his female servant’s tooth, he
shall let the servant go free for his tooth’s
sake.
28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman to
death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and
its meat shall not be eaten; but the owner
of the bull shall not be held responsible.
29 But if the bull had a habit of goring in
the past, and this has been testified to its
owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has
killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be
stoned, and its owner shall also be put to
death.
30 If a ransom is imposed on him, then
he shall give for the redemption of his life
whatever is imposed.
31 Whether it has gored a son or has
gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
32 If the bull gores a male servant or
a female servant, thirty shekels† of silver
shall be given to their master, and the ox
shall be stoned.
33 “If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs
a pit and doesn’t cover it, and a bull or a
donkey falls into it,
34 the owner ofthe pit shall make it good.
He shall give money to its owner, and the
dead animal shall be his.
35 “If one man’s bull injures another’s,
so that it dies, then they shall sell the live
bull, and divide its price; and they shall
also divide the dead animal.
36 Or ifitis knownthatthe bull was inthe
habit of goring in the past, and its owner
has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull
for bull, and the dead animal shall be his
own.
21:32 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 30 shekels is about 300 grams or about 10.6 ounces.
Word English Bible
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