Laws About Slaves

Exodus 21

1 Now these are the rights which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou should buy a Hebrew slave, 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 born 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 slave 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 unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him forever.

7 And if a man should sell his daughter to be a maidslave, she shall not go out as the menslaves do. 8 If she pleases not her master, who therefore took her not unto himself to wife, then it is permitted that she be ransomed; and he may not sell her unto a strange nation when he rejects her. 9 And if he has betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 10 If he takes another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, he shall not diminish. 11 And if he does not do these three things unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

12 He that smites a man so that he dies shall be surely put to death. 13 And if a man did not lie in wait but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place where he shall flee. 14 But if a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbour to slay him with prudence, thou shalt take him from my altar that he may die.

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

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

17 In the same manner he that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

18 And if men strive together and one smites another with a stone or with his fist and he dies not, but keeps his bed, 19 if he rises again and walks abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be absolved, only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

20 And if a man smites his slave or his maid with a rod and he dies under his hand, he shall be surely punished. 21 Notwithstanding, if he continues a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money.

22 If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that she aborts but without death, he shall be surely punished according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay by the judges. 23 And if there is death, then thou shalt pay 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 someone smites the eye of their slave or the eye of their maid that it perishes, he shall let them go free for their eye’s sake. 27 And if he smites out his manslave’s tooth or his maidslave’s tooth, he shall let them go free for their tooth’s sake.

28 If an ox gores a man or a woman 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 absolved. 29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past and it has been testified to his owner, and he has not kept him in, but that he has killed 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 shall it be done unto him. 32 If the ox shall gore a manslave or a maidslave, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Next Book Next Book