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UST EXO Chapter 21

◄ EXO 21 ► ║ ═ ©

21 These are the laws that you must establish for the Israelite nation:

2 When 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 does not have to pay you anything for setting him free. 3 If he became your slave alone, you will free him alone. But if he had a wife, you must free both him and his wife. 4 If the master of a slave gives him a wife, and she gives birth to sons or daughters while her husband is a slave, you only have to free the man. His wife and children will continue to be slaves of their master. 5 But when it is time for you to free the slave if he clearly states: ‘I love my master and my wife and my children, and I do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him to the place where they worship God. There he must make the slave stand against the door or the doorpost. Then the master will use an awl to make a hole in the slave’s ear and he will own that slave for the rest of his life.

7 If a man sells his daughter to become a slave, she should not go free like the male slaves. 8 If the man who bought her wanted her to be his concubine, but 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 was not what he and the girl’s father agreed to. 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 marries another woman, he must continue to give the first woman the same amount of food, clothing, and sexual attention that he gave to her before. 11 If he does not do these three things for her, he must free her from being a slave, and she is not required to pay anything to go free.

12 If someone hits a man in order to kill him and the man dies, then you absolutely must execute the murderer; 13 but if he did not plan the murder—if God allowed the accident—the one who hit 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 on purpose, you must kill the murderer even if he runs to God’s altar.

15 You must kill anyone who strikes his father or mother.

16 You must kill anyone who kidnaps another person, whether he sold the person or you found him still with the kidnapper.

17 You must kill anyone who curses or insults his father or his mother.

18 Suppose two people fight, and one hits the other with a stone or his fist. Suppose the person he strikes does not die but is injured and has to stay in bed for a while, 19 but later he is able to walk outside using a cane. Then they must not punish the person who hit him, except that they must make him pay the injured person the money he could not earn while he was recovering as well as the costs for healing.

20 If someone hits his male or female slave with a stick, and if the slave dies from the blow, then you must avenge the slave’s death. 21 But if the slave recovers after a few days, you must not punish the one who hit him, because the slave was his property.

22 If some men are fighting, and they hit a pregnant woman so that she gives birth, but she and the baby are unharmed, whoever hit her must pay a fine. He must pay whatever the woman’s husband asks after a judge approves of the fine. 23 But if he harmed anyone you must punish him by causing the same harm to him. If he killed someone, you must kill him. 24 In the same way, if he harmed an eye, a tooth, a hand, or a foot, 25 or caused a burn, a wound, or a bruise—you must cause the same harm to him.

26 If the owner of a slave strikes the eye of his male or female slave and that eye becomes blind, then 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 do not eat it. The owner of the bull is not guilty. 29 But if the bull had attacked people several times before and if people had told its owner about that, but he did not keep the bull inside a fence, and it kills a man or woman by goring, then you must kill the bull by throwing stones at it, and you must also kill its owner. 30 However, if the family of the dead chooses to demand compensation instead, to save his life he must pay the full amount they demand. 31 If someone’s bull attacks and gores someone’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 thirty pieces of silver, and you must kill the bull by throwing stones at it.

33 Suppose someone uncovers a hole for storing water or digs one and does not cover it. If someone’s bull or donkey falls into it and dies, 34 the owner of the pit must give the animal’s owner as much money as the animal was worth, but then he will own the dead animal.

35 If someone’s bull hurts another person’s bull, so 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 get for it. They must also divide between them the meat of the animal that died. 36 However, if the owner knew that the bull often attacked other animals before, and he did not secure it, then the owner of that bull must give the owner of the bull that died a living bull, but then he will own the dead animal.

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