Laws relating to Justice.

¹ “These are the judgments which you shall place before them:

² If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve you; in the seventh, he shall depart freely, without charge.

³ With whatever clothing he arrived, with the like let him depart. If he has a wife, his wife also shall depart, at the same time.

⁴ But if his lord gave him a wife, and she has borne sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her lord. Yet still, he himself will go out with his clothing.

⁵ And if the servant will say, ‘I love my lord, and my wife and children, I will not depart freely,’

⁶ then his lord shall make an offering for him to the heavens, and it shall be applied to the door and the posts, and he will pierce his ear with an awl. And he shall be his servant in perpetuity.¹²

1. 21:6This verse is translated somewhat more loosely, so that the meaning is clearer. The master of the household makes an offering (animal sacrifice) on behalf of his servant, then he applies some of its blood (in the manner of the Passover) to the door posts. The offering cannot be understood as to ‘the gods’ because the previous verses forbid sacrifices to other gods. The word ‘diis’ has a broader meaning than the word ‘gods.’ It refers to things that are divine, i.e. to the heavens.(Conte)
2. 21:6To the gods: Elohim. That is, to the judges, or magistrates, authorized by God.(Challoner)

⁷ If anyone sells his daughter to be a servant, she shall not depart as a female servant is accustomed to go out.

⁸ If she displeases the eyes of her lord, to whom she had been delivered, he shall dismiss her. But he shall have no authority to sell her to a foreign people, even if he despises her.

⁹ But if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall treat her according to the custom with daughters.

¹⁰ And if he takes another for him, he shall provide to the maiden a marriage, and clothing, and he shall not refuse the price of her chastity.

¹¹ If he does not do these three things, she shall depart freely, without money.

¹² Whoever strikes a man, intending to murder, shall be put to death.¹

1. 21:12Or, more literally: ‘shall die a death.’(Conte)

¹³ But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands, then I will appoint for you a place to which he must flee.

¹⁴ If someone murders his neighbor with deliberation, by lying in wait, you shall tear him away from my altar, so that he may die.

¹⁵ Whoever strikes his father or mother shall die a death.

¹⁶ Whoever will have stolen a man and sold him, having been convicted of the crime, shall be put to death.

¹⁷ Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother shall die a death.

¹⁸ If men will have quarreled, and one of them has struck his neighbor with a stone or a fist, and he does not die, but lies in bed,

¹⁹ if he gets up again and can walk outside on his staff, he who struck him will be innocent, but only if he makes sufficient restitution for his deeds and for the cost of the physicians.

²⁰ Whoever strikes his male or female servant with a staff, and if they have died by his hands, he shall be guilty of a crime.

²¹ But if he survives for one day or two, he shall not be subject to punishment, because it is his money.¹

1. 21:21He is still guilty of the crime, as verse 20 states, but there will not be a financial penalty.(Conte)

²² If men will have quarreled, and one of them has struck a pregnant woman, and as a result she miscarries, but she herself survives, he shall be subject to as much damage as the husband of the woman shall petition from him, or as arbitrators shall judge.

²³ But if her death will have followed, he will repay a life for a life,

²⁴ an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,

²⁵ a scrape for a scrape, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.

²⁶ If anyone will have struck the eye of his male or female servant, having left them with one eye, he shall release them freely, because of the eye that he has put out.

²⁷ Likewise, if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female servant, he shall similarly release them freely.

²⁸ If an ox has struck a man or a woman with his horn, and if they die, it shall be stoned. And its flesh shall not be eaten; also, the owner of the ox will be innocent.

²⁹ But if the ox had been pushing with his horn, from yesterday and the day before, and they warned his owner, but he did not confine it, and it will have killed a man or a woman, then the ox shall be stoned, and his owner shall be killed.

³⁰ But if they have imposed a price on him, he shall give, in exchange for his life, whatever is asked.

³¹ Likewise, if it has struck a son or a daughter with its horns, it shall be subject to a similar verdict.

³² If it attacks a male or female servant, he shall give thirty shekels of silver to their lord, yet truly the ox shall be stoned.

³³ If a man digs or opens a cistern, and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

³⁴ then the owner of the cistern shall repay the price of the beasts, and what is dead will belong to him.

³⁵ If the ox of a stranger wounds the ox of another, and it has died, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price, but the carcass of the dead one they shall distribute between them.

³⁶ But if he knew that his ox had pushed with its horns, yesterday and the day before, and its owner did not confine it, then he shall repay an ox for an ox, and he will receive the whole carcass.”