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Exodus 21
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New American Standard Bible 1995

Exodus 21

Ordinances for the People

1“Now these are the 1ordinances which you are to set before them:

2“If you buy 2a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. 3If he comes 3alone, he shall go out 4alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4If 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 5alone. 5But 6if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ 6then his master shall bring him to 7God, 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“8If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to 9go free 10as the male slaves 11do. 8If she is 12displeasing in the eyes of her master 13who 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 14unfairness to her. 9If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. 10If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her 15food, her clothing, or 16her conjugal rights. 11If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Personal Injuries

12“17He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. 1318But 19if he did not lie in wait for him, but 20God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. 1421If, 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“22He who 23kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his 24possession, shall surely be put to death.

17“25He 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 26remains in bed, 19if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his 27loss of time, and 28shall take care of him until he is completely healed.

20“If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies 29at his hand, he shall 30be punished. 21If, however, he 31survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; 32for he is his 33property.

22“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that 34she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband 35may demand of him, and he shall 36pay 37as the judges decide. 23But if there is any further injury, 38then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 2439eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burn for burn, wound for wound, 40bruise for bruise.

26“If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. 27And if he 41knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

28“If an ox gores a man or a woman 42to death, 43the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. 29If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death. 30If a ransom is 44demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is 45demanded of him. 31Whether it gores a son or 46a daughter, it shall be done to him according to 47the same rule. 32If the ox gores a male or female slave, 48the owner shall give his or her master 49thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

33“If a man opens a pit, or 50digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall 51give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.

35“If one man’s ox hurts another’s so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price equally; and also they shall divide the dead ox. 36Or if it is known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.

Notes

  1. 1. Exodus 21:1 Ex 24:3, 4; Deut 4:14; 6:1 ↩
  2. 2. Exodus 21:2 Lev 25:39-43; Deut 15:12-18; Jer 34:14 ↩
  3. 3. Exodus 21:3 Lit by himself ↩
  4. 4. Exodus 21:3 Lit by himself ↩
  5. 5. Exodus 21:4 Lit by himself ↩
  6. 6. Exodus 21:5 Deut 15:16, 17 ↩
  7. 7. Exodus 21:6 Or the judges who acted in God’s name ↩
  8. 8. Exodus 21:7 Neh 5:5 ↩
  9. 9. Exodus 21:7 Lit go out ↩
  10. 10. Exodus 21:7 Ex 21:2, 3 ↩
  11. 11. Exodus 21:7 Lit go out ↩
  12. 12. Exodus 21:8 Lit bad ↩
  13. 13. Exodus 21:8 Another reading is so that he did not designate her ↩
  14. 14. Exodus 21:8 Lit dealing treacherously ↩
  15. 15. Exodus 21:10 Lit flesh ↩
  16. 16. Exodus 21:10 1 Cor 7:3, 5 ↩
  17. 17. Exodus 21:12 Gen 9:6; Lev 24:17; Num 35:30; Matt 26:52 ↩
  18. 18. Exodus 21:13 Num 35:10-34; Deut 19:1-13; Josh 20:1-9 ↩
  19. 19. Exodus 21:13 Lit he who ↩
  20. 20. Exodus 21:13 1 Sam 24:4, 10, 18 ↩
  21. 21. Exodus 21:14 Deut 19:11, 12; 1 Kin 2:28-34 ↩
  22. 22. Exodus 21:16 Deut 24:7 ↩
  23. 23. Exodus 21:16 Lit steals ↩
  24. 24. Exodus 21:16 Lit hand ↩
  25. 25. Exodus 21:17 Lev 20:9; Prov 20:20; Matt 15:4; Mark 7:10 ↩
  26. 26. Exodus 21:18 Lit lies ↩
  27. 27. Exodus 21:19 Lit his sitting ↩
  28. 28. Exodus 21:19 Lit healing, he shall cause to be healed ↩
  29. 29. Exodus 21:20 Lit under ↩
  30. 30. Exodus 21:20 Lit suffer vengeance ↩
  31. 31. Exodus 21:21 Lit stands ↩
  32. 32. Exodus 21:21 Lev 25:44-46 ↩
  33. 33. Exodus 21:21 Lit money ↩
  34. 34. Exodus 21:22 Or an untimely birth occurs; lit her children come out ↩
  35. 35. Exodus 21:22 Lit lays on him ↩
  36. 36. Exodus 21:22 Ex 21:30; Deut 22:18, 19 ↩
  37. 37. Exodus 21:22 Lit by arbitration ↩
  38. 38. Exodus 21:23 Lev 24:19; Deut 19:21 ↩
  39. 39. Exodus 21:24 Lev 24:20; Deut 19:21; Matt 5:38 ↩
  40. 40. Exodus 21:25 Lit welt ↩
  41. 41. Exodus 21:27 Lit causes to fall ↩
  42. 42. Exodus 21:28 Lit so that he dies ↩
  43. 43. Exodus 21:28 Gen 9:5; Ex 21:32 ↩
  44. 44. Exodus 21:30 Lit laid on him ↩
  45. 45. Exodus 21:30 Lit laid on him ↩
  46. 46. Exodus 21:31 Lit gores a daughter ↩
  47. 47. Exodus 21:31 Lit this judgment ↩
  48. 48. Exodus 21:32 Lit he ↩
  49. 49. Exodus 21:32 Zech 11:12; Matt 26:15; 27:3, 9 ↩
  50. 50. Exodus 21:33 Lit if a man digs ↩
  51. 51. Exodus 21:34 Lit give back ↩

Commentaries on Exodus 21

New American Standard Bible 1995 — © 1960–1995 The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.