Exodus 21:1–22

¹“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:

²If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything. ³If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

⁵But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’ ⁶then his master is to bring him before the judges.^a And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

⁷And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do. ⁸If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who had designated her for himself,^b he must allow her to be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, since he has broken faith with her. ⁹And if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of his first wife. ¹¹If, however, he does not provide her with these three things, she is free to go without monetary payment.

¹²Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death. ¹³If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

¹⁴But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.

¹⁵Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁶Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.

¹⁷Anyone who curses^c his father or mother must surely be put to death.^d

¹⁸If men are quarreling and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed, ¹⁹then the one who struck him shall go unpunished, as long as the other can get up and walk around outside with his staff. Nevertheless, he must compensate the man for his lost work and see that he is completely healed.

²⁰If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished. ²¹However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.

²²If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely,^e but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.