| Chapter 21 |
1 |
And these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. |
2 |
If thou buy a Hebrew bondman, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. |
3 |
If he came in alone, he shall go out alone: if he had a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. |
4 |
If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master`s, and he shall go out alone. |
5 |
But if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free; |
6 |
then his master shall bring him before the judges, 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 be his bondman for ever. |
7 |
And if a man shall sell his daughter as a handmaid, she shall not go out as the bondmen go out. |
8 |
If she is unacceptable in the eyes of her master, who had taken her for himself, then shall he let her be ransomed: to sell her unto a foreign people he hath no power, after having dealt unfaithfully with her. |
9 |
And if he have appointed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the law of daughters. |
10 |
If he take himself another, her food, her clothing, and her conjugal rights he shall not diminish. |
11 |
And if he do not these three things unto her, then shall she go out free without money. |
12 |
He that striketh a man, so that he die, shall certainly be put to death. |
13 |
But if he have not lain in wait, and God have delivered him into his hand, I will appoint thee a place to which he shall flee. |
14 |
But if a man act wantonly toward his neighbour, and slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. |
15 |
And he that striketh his father, or his mother, shall certainly be put to death. |
16 |
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall certainly be put to death. |
17 |
And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall certainly be put to death. |
18 |
And if men dispute, and one strike the other with a stone, or with the fist, and he die not, but take to his bed, |
19 |
-- if he rise, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that struck him be guiltless; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. |
20 |
And if a man strike his bondman or his handmaid with a staff, and he die under his hand, he shall certainly be avenged. |
21 |
Only, if he continue to live a day or two days, he shall not be avenged; for he is his money. |
22 |
And if men strive together, and strike a woman with child, so that she be delivered, and no mischief happen, he shall in any case be fined, according as the woman`s husband shall impose on him, and shall give it as the judges estimate. |
23 |
But if mischief happen, then thou shalt give life for life, |
24 |
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, |
25 |
branding for branding, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. |
26 |
And if a man strike the eye of his bondman or the eye of his handmaid, and it be marred, he shall let him go for his eye. |
27 |
And if he knock out his bondman`s tooth or his handmaid`s tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth. |
28 |
And if an ox gore a man or a woman, so that they die, then the ox shall certainly be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be guiltless. |
29 |
But if the ox have gored heretofore, and it have been testified to its owner, and he have not kept it in, and it kill a man or a woman, -- the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. |
30 |
If there be imposed on him a satisfaction, then he shall give the ransom of his life, according to what is imposed on him. |
31 |
Whether it gore a son or gore a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done to him. |
32 |
If the ox gore a bondman or a handmaid, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. |
33 |
-- And if a man open a pit, or if a man dig a pit, and do not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall into it, |
34 |
the owner of the pit shall make it good, shall give money to the owner of them; and the dead ox shall be his. |
35 |
-- And if one man`s ox gore his neighbour`s ox, and it die, then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money thereof, and divide the dead also. |
36 |
Or if it be known that the ox have gored heretofore, and its owner have not kept him in, he shall in any case restore ox for ox; and the dead shall be his. |