21:11 These are the decisions that you will set before them:
Hebrew Servants
21:22 If you buy3 a Hebrew servant,4 he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free5 without paying anything.6 21:3 If he came7 in by himself8 he will go out by himself; if he had9 a wife when he comes in, then his wife will go out with him. 21:4 If his master gave10 him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself. 21:5 But if the servant should declare,11 ‘I love my master, and my wife, and my children; I will not go out12 free,’ 21:6 then his master will bring him to the judges,13 and he will bring him to the door, or the doorposts, and his master will bore through his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.14
21:7 If a man sells his daughter15 as a female servant,16 she will not go out as the men servants do. 21:8 If she does not please17 her master, who has desired her18 for himself, then he must let her be redeemed.19 He has no right20 to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully21 with her. 21:9 And if he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her after the manner22 of daughters. 21:10 If he takes another wife,23 he must not diminish her food,24 her clothing, and her marital rights.25 21:11 And if he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.26
Personal Injuries
21:1227 Whoever strikes someone28 so that he dies29 must surely be put to death.30 21:13 But if he does not do it with premeditation,31 but it comes about by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. 21:14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him with guile,32 you will take him from my altar to die.
21:15 And whoever strikes33 his father and his mother must surely be put to death.
21:16 And whoever kidnaps someone34 and sells him,35 or he is found still holding him,36 must surely be put to death.
21:17 And whoever treats his father or his mother disgracefully37 must surely be put to death.
21:18 And if men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone, or with his fist, and he does not die, but must remain in bed,38 21:19 and then39 if he rises and walks about40 outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay41 for the injured person’s42 loss of time43 and see that he is fully healed.
21:20 And if a man strikes his servant or his female servant with a rod so that he or she44 dies as a result of the blow,45 he will surely be punished.46 21:21 However, if the injured servant47 survives one or two days, the owner48 will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss.49
21:22 And if men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely,50 but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband will put on him, and he will pay what the court decides.51 21:23 But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life, 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 21:25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.52
21:26 And if a man strikes the eye of his servant, or the eye of his female servant, so that he destroys it,53 he will let him go free54 for the sake of his eye. 21:27 And if he knocks out the tooth of his servant, or the tooth of his female servant, he will let him go free for the sake of the tooth.
Laws about Animals
21:2855 If a bull56 gores a man or a woman so that either dies,57 then the ox must surely58 be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten; but the owner of the bull will be acquitted. 21:29 But if the bull had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned,59 and he did not take the necessary precautions,60 and then it killed a man or a woman, the bull must be stoned and the man must be put to death. 21:30 If a ransom is set for him,61 then he must pay the redemption for his life according to whatever was set for him. 21:31 If it gores a son or a daughter, according to this judgment will it be done to him. 21:32 If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, he must pay thirty shekels of silver,62 and the ox must be stoned.63
21:33 If a man opens a pit, or if he digs a pit, and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 21:34 the owner of the pit must repay64 the loss. He must give money65 to the owner of them, and the dead animal66 will be his. 21:35 And if the bull of one man injures the bull of his neighbor so that it dies, then they will sell the live bull and divide its proceeds,67 and they will also divide the dead bull.68 21:36 Or if it is known that the bull had the habit of goring, and its owner did not take the necessary precautions, he must surely pay69 bull for bull, and the dead animal will be his.70
Laws about Property