Exodus 21:12-27

Modern English Version

The Law About Violence

¹² He that strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. ¹³ However, if it was not premeditated, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place where he may flee. ¹⁴ But if a man willfully comes upon his neighbor in order to kill him cunningly, then you must take him from My altar, that he may die.

¹⁵ He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶ He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷ He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ If men fight and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die, but must remain in bed, ¹⁹ and then if he gets up and walks around on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished. Only he must pay for his loss of time and shall see to it that he is thoroughly healed.

²⁰ If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a rod so that he or she dies at his hand, then he shall surely be punished. ²¹ Nevertheless, if he survives for a day or two, then he shall not be punished, for it is his money.

²² If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that her child is born prematurely,^[a] yet there is no serious injury, then he shall be surely punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. ²³ But if there is any serious injury, then you shall give life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

²⁶ If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or the eye of his female servant so that it is destroyed, then he must let him go free on account of his eye. ²⁷ If he knocks out his male servant’s tooth or his female servant’s tooth, then he shall let him or her go free on account of the tooth.