T4T EXO Chapter 21

Instructions for treating slaves

21 “Here are some other instructions to give to the Israeli people: 2 When/If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for only six years. In the seventh year you must free him from being your slave, and he is not required to pay you anything for setting him free. 3 If he was not married before he became your slave, and if he marries someone while he is your slave, his wife is not to be set free with him. But if he was married before he became your slave, you must free both him and his wife. 4 If a slave’s master gives him a wife, and she gives birth to sons or daughters while her husband is a slave, only the man is to be freed. His wife and children will continue to be slaves of their master. 5 But when it is time for the slave to be set free, if the slave says, ‘I love my master and my wife and my children, and I do not want to be set free,’ 6 then his master must take him to the place where they worship God (OR, to the owner’s house). There he must make the slave stand against the door or the doorpost. Then the master will use an ◄awl/pointed metal rod► to make a hole in the slave’s ear. Then he will fasten a tag to the slave’s ear to indicate that ◄he will own that slave for the rest of his life/he will own the slave as long as the slave lives►.

7 If a man sells his daughter to become a slave, she should not be set free after six years, as the male slaves are. 8 If the man who bought her wanted her to be his wife, but if later he is not pleased with her, he must sell her back to her father. He must not sell her to a foreigner, because that would be breaking the contract/agreement he made with the girl’s father. 9 If the man who buys her wants her to be a wife for his son, he must then treat her as though she were his own daughter. 10 If the master takes another slave girl to be another wife for himself, he must continue to give the first slave wife the same amount of food and clothing that he gave to her before, and he must continue to have sex [EUP] with her as before. 11 If he does not do all these three things for her, he must free her from being a slave, and she is not required to pay anything for being set free.

12 You must execute anyone who strikes another person with the result that the person who is struck dies. 13 But if the one who struck the other did not intend to kill that person, the one who struck him can escape to a place that I will choose for you, and he will be safe there. 14 But if someone gets angry with another person and kills him, even if the murderer runs to the altar, a place that God designated as a place to be safe, you must execute him.

15 Anyone who strikes his father or mother must surely be executed.

16 Anyone who kidnaps another person, either in order to sell that person or to keep him as a slave, must be executed.

17 Anyone who reviles/curses his father or his mother must be executed.

18 Suppose two people fight, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist. And suppose the person he strikes does not die but is injured and has to stay in bed for a while, 19 and later he is able to walk outside using a cane. Then the person who struck him does not have to be punished. However, he must pay the injured person the money he could not earn while he was recovering, and he must also pay the injured person’s medical expenses until that person is well.

20 If someone strikes his male or female slave with a stick, if the slave dies ◄immediately/as a result► [IDM], the one who struck him must be punished. 21 But if the slave lives for a day or two after he is struck and then dies, you must not punish the one who struck him. Not having that slave to be able to work for him any longer is enough punishment.

22 Suppose two people are fighting and they hurt a pregnant woman with the result that ◄she has a miscarriage/her baby is born prematurely and dies►. If the woman is not harmed in any other way, the one who injured her must pay a fine. He must pay whatever the woman’s husband demands, after a judge approves of the fine. 23 But if the woman is injured in some additional way, the one who injured her must be caused to suffer in exactly the same way that he caused her to suffer. If she dies, he must be executed. 24-25 24-25If her eye is injured or destroyed, or if he knocks out one of her teeth, or her hand or foot is injured, or if she is burned or bruised, the one who injured her must be injured in the same way. 26 If the owner of a slave strikes the eye of his male or female slave and ruins it, he must free that slave because of what he did to the slave’s eye. 27 If someone knocks out one of his slave’s teeth, he must free the slave because of what he did to the slave’s tooth.

28 If a bull gores a man or woman with the result that the person dies, you must kill the bull by throwing stones at it, but you must not punish the owner of the bull. 29 But suppose the bull had attacked people several times before, and its owner had been warned, but he did not keep the bull inside a fence. Then you must kill the bull by throwing stones at it, but you must also execute its owner. 30 However, if the owner of the bull is allowed to pay a fine ◄to save his own life/in order not to be executed►, he must pay the full amount that the judges say that he must pay. 31 If someone’s bull attacks and gores another person’s son or daughter, you must treat the bull’s owner according to that same rule. 32 If a bull attacks and gores a male or female slave, its owner must pay to the slave’s owner 30 pieces of silver. Then you must kill the bull by throwing stones at it.

33 Suppose someone has a pit/cistern and does not keep it covered, and someone’s bull or donkey falls into it and dies. 34 Then the owner of the pit/cistern must pay for the animal that died. He must give the money to the animal’s owner, but then he can take away the animal that died and do whatever he wants to with it. 35 If someone’s bull hurts another person’s bull with the result that it dies, the owners of both bulls must sell the bull that is living, and they must divide between them the money that they receive for it. They must also divide between them the meat of the animal that died. 36 However, if people know that the bull often attacked other animals previously, and its owner did not keep it inside a fence, then the owner of that bull must give the owner of the bull that died one of his own bulls, but he can take away the animal that died and do with it whatever he wants to do.”