Hebrew Slave Laws

1“Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:

2“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve six years, and in the seventh he is to go out free without paying anything. 3If he comes in by himself, he will go free by himself. If he is married, then his wife will go free with him. 4If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will be her master’s, and he will go free by himself. 5But if the servant says-says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’ 6then his master must bring him to God, and bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will bore his ear through with an awl, and he will serve him forever.

7“If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she is not to leave-leave as the male servants do. 8If she doesn’t please her master, who has married her to himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He will have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. 9If he marries her to his son, he must deal with her as a daughter. 10If he takes another wife to himself, he must not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights. 11If he doesn’t do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.

Laws on Personal Injuries

12“Anyone who strikes someone to death must be put to death-death, 13but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen, then I will appoint you a place where he may flee. 14If a man schemes to deliberately kill his neighbor, you must take him from my altar to be executed.

15“Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be executed-executed.

16“Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he must be executed-executed.

17“Anyone who curses his father or his mother must be executed-executed.

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; 19if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him will be cleared. But he must pay for the loss of his time, and must provide for his healing until he is healed-healed.

20“If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, the man must be punished-punished. 21Notwithstanding, if his servant gets up after a day or two, he should not be punished, for the servant is his property.

22“If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he must be fined-fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow. 23But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life, 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burning 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 must let the servant go free for his eye’s sake. 27If he strikes out his male servant’s tooth, or his female servant’s tooth, he must let the servant go free for his tooth’s sake.

Laws About Animals

28“If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned-stoned, and its meat not be eaten; but the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. 29But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and this has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull must be stoned, and its owner must also be put to death. 30If a ransom is imposed on him, then he must give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed. 31If it gores a son or a daughter, this judgment applies to him. 32If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels+21:32 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 30 shekels is about 300 grams or about 10.6 ounces. of silver must be given to their master, and the ox must 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, 34the owner of the pit must make restitution. He must give money to its owner, and the dead animal will become his.

35“If one man’s bull injures another’s, so that it dies, then they must sell the live bull and divide its price; they must also divide the dead animal. 36Or 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 must pay-pay bull for bull, and the dead animal will become his.