Exodus 21

1 “And these are the rules you are to set before them. 2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you six years, and in the seventh year he goes out free, for nothing. 3 If he came in alone, he goes out alone; if his wife came in with him, his wife goes out with him. 4 If his master gave him a wife and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and the children belong to his master, and he goes out alone. 5 But if the servant answers and says, ‘I love my master and my wife and my children; I will not go away free,’ 6 then his master is to bring him to the place of God’s judgment, and then bring him to the door, to the doorpost; and his master is to pierce his ear through with an awl, and he will serve him forever. [a] 7 And if a man sells his daughter as a household servant, she is not to go out the way the slave women go out. 8 If she does not please her master, after she has been pledged to him, he is to let her be bought free. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people, because he has broken faith with her. 9 And if he pledged her to his son, he is to treat her by what is due to daughters. 10 If he takes another for himself, he is not to withhold from her her food, her clothing, or her companionship. 11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she goes out free, without money.

12 If a man strikes someone and he dies, he is to be put to death. 13 But the one who did not do it willingly — God delivered him into his hands — I will give you a place where the one who killed may run. 14 But if a man sets on his neighbor to kill him by treachery, and he runs for refuge, you are to take him from my altar to be put to death. 15 Whoever strikes his father or his mother is to be put to death. 16 Whoever speaks evil of his father or his mother is to be put to death. [d] 17 Whoever steals one of the children of Israel, and overpowers him and sells him, and the man is found in his hands — he is to be put to death. 18 If two men quarrel, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but takes to his bed — 19 if the man gets up and walks around outside on his staff, the one who struck him will be clear; only he is to pay for the man’s lost time, and for his healing. 20 If a man strikes his servant or his servant girl with a rod, and the one struck dies under his hands, he is to be punished. 21 But if the servant survives a day or two, he is not to be punished — for the servant is his money. 22 If two men are fighting and strike a woman who is with child, and her child comes out not yet fully formed, he is to be fined: whatever the woman’s husband lays on him, he is to pay with a set value. [b] 23 But if it was fully formed, he is to give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, welt for welt. 26 If a man strikes the eye of his servant or the eye of his servant girl and blinds it, he is to send them out free in exchange for their eye. 27 And if he knocks out the tooth of his servant or the tooth of his servant girl, he is to send them out free in exchange for their tooth.

28 If a bull gores a man or a woman and they die, the bull is to be stoned with stones and its meat is not to be eaten; but the owner of the bull will be clear. 29 But if the bull was a gorer before yesterday and the day before, and its owner was warned and did not put it away, and it kills a man or a woman — the bull is to be stoned, and its owner is to die as well. 30 If a ransom is laid on him instead, he is to pay for the ransom of his life whatever they lay on him. 31 If it gores a son or a daughter, they are to deal with him by this same rule. 32 If the bull gores a servant or a servant girl, he is to pay their master thirty pieces of silver — about twelve ounces — and the bull is to be stoned. [c] 33 If a man opens a pit, or cuts a pit in rock, and does not cover it, and a calf or a donkey falls in, 34 the owner of the pit is to make it good: he is to pay money to the animal’s owner, and the dead animal is his. 35 If a man’s bull gores his neighbor’s bull and it dies, they are to sell the living bull and divide the money, and divide the dead one too. 36 But if the bull was known to be a gorer before yesterday and the day before, and its owner had been warned and did not put it away, he is to pay bull for bull, and the dead one is his.