Exodus 21

1. “And these are the judgments 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 for nothing.

3. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he was married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

5. And if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my sons. I do not want to go out free,’

6. His master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also 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. And if a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

8. If she does not please her master, who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no power to sell her to a strange nation,

9. And if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her as with daughters.

10. If he takes himself another wife, her food, her clothing, and her duty of marriage shall not be lessened.

11. And if he does not do these three things for her, then she shall go out free without money.

12. He that strikes a man, so that he dies, shall be surely put to death.

13. And if a man does not lie in wait, but God delivers him into his hand, then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.

14. But if a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, you shall take him from My altar so that he may die.

15. And he that strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

16. And he that steals a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

17. And he that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

18. And if men strive together, and one strikes another with a stone, or with his fist, and he does not die, but is confined to his bed;

19. If he rises again and walks abroad upon his staff, then he that struck him shall be set free. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be completely healed.

20. And if a man strikes his servant or his maidservant with a rod and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.

21. But if he continues a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money.

22. If men strive and strike a pregnant woman, so that there is a miscarriage, and no harm follows, he shall surely be punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him. And he shall pay as the judges determine.

23. And if any injury occurs, then you shall give life for life,

24. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26. And if a man strikes the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, so that it perishes, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

27. And if he strikes out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

28. If an ox gores a man or woman so that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall be clear.

29. But if the ox was known to gore in time past, and his owner has been warned, but he did not keep it in, so that it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

30. If there is laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatever is laid upon him.

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 ox shall gore a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

33. And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it,

34. The owner of the pit shall make it good and give silver to its owner. And the dead beast shall be his.

35. And in the event the ox of a man damages the ox of a neighbor, so that it dies, then they shall sell the living ox, and they shall divide the money of it. And they shall also divide the dead ox.

36. Or if it is known that the ox has been known to gore in time past, and his owner has not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox. And the dead ox shall be his own.”