Exodus 21:1-19

New American Standard Bible 1995

Ordinances for the People

21 “Now these are the ^(A)ordinances which you are to set before them:

² “If you buy ^(B)a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. ³ If he comes ^[a]alone, he shall go out ^[b]alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out ^[c]alone. ⁵ But ^(C)if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ ⁶ then his master shall bring him to ^[d]God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

⁷ “^(D)If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to ^[e]go free ^(E)as the male slaves ^[f]do. ⁸ If she is ^[g]displeasing in the eyes of her master ^[h]who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his ^[i]unfairness to her. ⁹ If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. ¹⁰ If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her ^[j]food, her clothing, or ^(F)her conjugal rights. ¹¹ If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Personal Injuries

¹² “^(G)He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. ^13 (H)But ^[k]if he did not lie in wait for him, but ^(I)God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. ^14 (J)If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die.

¹⁵ “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶ “^(K)He who ^[l]kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his ^[m]possession, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷ “^(L)He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ “If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but ^[n]remains in bed, ¹⁹ if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his ^[o]loss of time, and ^[p]shall take care of him until he is completely healed.