Exodus 21:1-19

English Standard Version

Laws About Slaves

21 “Now these are the ^(A)rules that you shall set before them. ^2 (B)When you buy a Hebrew slave,^[a] he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. ³ If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in 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 alone. ⁵ But ^(C)if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ⁶ then his master shall bring him to ^(D)God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

⁷ “When a man ^(E)sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. ⁸ If she does not please her master, who has designated her^[b] for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. ⁹ If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰ If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or ^(F)her marital rights. ¹¹ And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

^12 (G)“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. ^13 (H)But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then ^(I)I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. ¹⁴ But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, ^(J)you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

¹⁵ “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

^16 (K)“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found ^(L)in possession of him, shall be put to death.

^17 (M)“Whoever curses^[c] his father or his mother shall be put to death.

¹⁸ “When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, ¹⁹ then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.