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21
1 And these are the ordinances which you shall set before them. 2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve you, and in the seventh year he shall go forth free for nothing. 3 If he should have come in alone, he shall also go forth alone; and if his wife should have gone in together with him, his wife also shall go out. 4 Moreover, if his master give him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be his master's; and he shall go forth alone. 5 And if the servant should answer and say, I love my master and wife and children, I * Gr. do not run away. will not go away free; 6 his master shall bring him to the judgement-seat of God, and then shall he bring him to the door, —to the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever. 7 And if any one sell his daughter as a domestic, she shall not depart as the maidservants depart. 8 If she be not pleasing to her master, † Gr. who has. after she has betrothed herself to him, he shall let her go free; but he is not at liberty to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has trifled with her. 9 And if he should have betrothed her to his son, he shall do to her according to the right of daughters. 10 And if he take another to himself, he shall not deprive her of necessaries and her apparel, and her companionship with him. 11 And if he will not do these three things to her, she shall go out free without money. 12 And if any man strike another and he die, let him be certainly put to death. 13 But as for him that did it not willingly, but God delivered him into his hands, I will give you a place whither the slayer may flee. 14 And if any one lie in wait for his neighbour to kill him by craft, and he go for refuge, you shall take him from my altar to put him to death. 15 Whoever smites his father or his mother, let him be certainly put to death. 16 He that reviles his father or his mother shall surely die. 17 Whosoever shall steal one of the children of Israel, and prevail over him and sell him, and he be found with him, let him ✡ Matt 15:4 certainly die. 18 And if two men revile each other and strike the one the other with a stone or his fist, and he die not, but be laid upon his bed; 19 if the man arise and walk abroad on his staff, he that struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for his loss of time, and for his healing. 20 And if a man strike his man-servant or his maidservant, with a rod, and the party die under his hands, he shall be surely punished. 21 But if the servant continue to live a day or two, let not the master be punished; for he is his money. 22 And if two men strive and strike a woman with child, and her child be born imperfectly formed, he shall be forced to pay a penalty: as the woman's husband may lay upon him, he shall pay with a valuation. 23 But if it be perfectly formed, he shall give life for life, 24 ✡ Matt 5:38 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 26 And if one strike the eye of his man-servant, or the eye of his maidservant, and put it out, he shall let them go free for their eye's sake. 27 And if he should strike out the tooth of his man-servant, or the tooth of his maidservant, he shall send them away free for their tooth's sake. 28 And if a bull gore a man or woman and ‡ Or, heor she die. they die, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall be clear. 29 But if the bull should have been given to goring in former time, and men should have told his owner, and he have not removed him, but he should have slain a man or woman, the bull shall be stoned, and his owner shall die also. 30 And if a ransom should be imposed on him, he shall pay for the ransom of his soul as much as they shall lay upon him. 31 And if the bull gore a son or daughter, let them do to him according to this ordinance. 32 And if the bull gore a man-servant or maidservant, he shall pay to their master thirty silver didrachmas, and the bull shall be stoned. 33 And if any one open a pit or dig a cavity in stone, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall in there, 34 the owner of the pit shall make compensation; he shall give money to their owner, and the dead shall be his own. 35 And if any man's bull gore the bull of his neighbour, and it die, they shall sell the living bull and divide the money, and they shall divide the dead bull. 36 But if the bull be known to have been given to goring in time past, and they have testified to his owner, and he have not removed him, he shall repay bull for bull, but the dead shall be his own.

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*21:5 Gr. do not run away.

†21:8 Gr. who has.

✡21:17 Matt 15:4

✡21:24 Matt 5:38

‡21:28 Or, heor she die.

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