1 “Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh
he shall go out free without paying anything. 3 If he comes in by himself,
he shall go out by himself. If he is married, 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 be her master’s, and he shall go out by
himself. 5 But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my
wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’ 6 then his master shall
bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the door-post, and
his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for
ever.
7 “If a man sells his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out
as the men-servants do. 8 If she doesn’t please her master, who has
married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no
right to sell her to a foreign people, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with
her. 9 If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her after the
manner of daughters. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not
diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights. 11 If he doesn’t
do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
12 “One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
13 but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I
will appoint you a place where he shall flee. 14 If a man schemes and
comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my
altar, that he may die.
15 “Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to
death.
16 “Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his
hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17 “Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to
death.
18 “If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his
fist, and he doesn’t die, but is confined to bed; 19 if he rises again and
walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he
shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until
he is thoroughly healed.
20 “If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under
his hand, he shall surely be punished. 21 Notwithstanding, if he gets up
after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.
22 “If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth
prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the
woman’s husband demands and the judges allow. 23 But if any harm follows,
then you must take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand
for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for burning, wound for wound, and
bruise for bruise.
26 “If a man strikes his servant’s eye, or his maid’s eye, and destroys
it, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. 27 If he strikes out his
man-servant’s tooth, or his maid-servant’s tooth, he shall let him go free
for his tooth’s sake.
28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be
stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not
be held responsible. 29 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past,
and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has
killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also
be put to death. 30 If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the
redemption of his life whatever is laid on him. 31 Whether it has gored a
son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to
him. 32 If the bull gores a man-servant or a maid-servant, thirty shekels
of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 “If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn’t cover it, and
a bull or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the pit shall make it
good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
35 “If one man’s bull injures another’s, so that it dies, then they shall
sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead
animal. 36 Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in
the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for
bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
World English Bible - Public Domain |