Exodus 21:12-27

New International Version

Personal Injuries

¹² “Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death.^{(A) 13} However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place^(B) I will designate. ¹⁴ But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately,^(C) that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death.^(D)

¹⁵ “Anyone who attacks^[a] their father or mother is to be put to death.

¹⁶ “Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death,^(E) whether the victim has been sold^(F) or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.

¹⁷ “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.^(G)

¹⁸ “If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist^[b] and the victim does not die but is confined to bed, ¹⁹ the one who struck the blow will not be held liable if the other can get up and walk around outside with a staff; however, the guilty party must pay the injured person for any loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed.

²⁰ “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, ²¹ but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.^(H)

²² “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely^[c] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands^(I) and the court allows. ²³ But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life,^{(J) 24} eye for eye, tooth for tooth,^(K) hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

²⁶ “An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. ²⁷ And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.