Exodus21
World English Bible · Public Domain
1“Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them:
2“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
3If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4If 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 by himself.
5But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’
6then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
7“If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.
8If she doesn’t please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall 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 shall deal with her as a daughter.
10If he takes another wife to himself, he shall 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.
12“One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
13but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen; then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
14If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
15“Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
16“Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17“Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
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 shall be cleared; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.
20“If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, the man shall surely be punished.
21Notwithstanding, if his servant gets up after a day or two, he shall 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 shall be surely 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 shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
27If he strikes out his male servant’s tooth, or his female servant’s tooth, he shall let the servant go free for his tooth’s sake.
28“If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its meat shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall 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 shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
30If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed.
31Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
32If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall 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 shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
35“If one man’s bull injures another’s, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall 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 shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Exodus 21.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Laws respecting servants. (1–11). Judicial laws. (12–21). Judicial laws. (22–36).
vv1-11
The laws in this chapter relate to the fifth and sixth commandments; and though they differ from our times and customs, nor are they binding on us, yet they explain the moral law, and the rules of natural justice. The servant, in the state of servitude, was an emblem of that state of bondage to sin, Satan, and the law, which man is brought into by robbing God of his glory, by the transgression of his precepts. Likewise in being made free, he was an emblem of that liberty wherewith Christ, the Son of God, makes free from bondage his people, who are free indeed; and made so freely, without money and without price, of free grace.
vv12-21
God, who by his providence gives and maintains life, by his law protects it. A wilful murderer shall be taken even from God's altar. But God provided cities of refuge to protect those whose unhappiness it was, and not their fault, to cause the death of another; for such as by accident, when a man is doing a lawful act, without intent of hurt, happens to kill another. Let children hear the sentence of God's word upon the ungrateful and disobedient; and remember that God will certainly requite it, if they have ever cursed their parents, even in their hearts, or have lifted up their hands against them, except they repent, and flee for refuge to the Saviour. And let parents hence learn to be very careful in training up their children, setting them a good example, especially in the government of their passions, and in praying for them; taking heed not to provoke them to wrath. Through poverty the Israelites sometimes sold themselves or their children; magistrates sold some persons for their crimes, and creditors were in some cases allowed to sell their debtors who could not pay. But “man-stealing,” the object of which is to force another into slavery, is ranked in the New Testament with the greatest crimes. Care is here taken, that satisfaction be made for hurt done to a person, though death do not follow. The gospel teaches masters to forbear, and to moderate threatenings, Eph 6:9, considering with Job, What shall I do, when God riseth up? Job 31:13, 14.
vv22-36
The cases here mentioned give rules of justice then, and still in use, for deciding similar matters. We are taught by these laws, that we must be very careful to do no wrong, either directly or indirectly. If we have done wrong, we must be very willing to make it good, and be desirous that nobody may lose by us.
Key Words
אֵלֶּה: these or those
מִשְׁפָּט: properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or (participant's) divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty; abstractly, justice, including a participant's right or privilege (statutory or customary), or even a style
שׂוּם: to put (used in a great variety of applications, literal, figurative, inferentially, and elliptically)
פָּנִים: the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.)
קָנָה: to erect, i.e. create; by extension, to procure, especially by purchase (causatively, sell); by implication to own
עִבְרִי: an Eberite (i.e. Hebrew) or descendant of Eber
עֶבֶד: a servant
עָבַד: to work (in any sense); by implication, to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, etc.
שֵׁשׁ: six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the hand); as ord. sixth
שָׁנֶה: a year (as a revolution of time)
Cross References
Exodus 21Parallels the six-year limit and release laws for Hebrew servants.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Jesus contrasts the civil law of retaliation (lex talionis) with personal non-resistance.
Supported by JFB
Expands on circumstances of a poor Israelite selling himself into servitude.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallels the law of boring a servant's ear to signify lifelong service.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Messianic allusion to the opened/bored ear of the obedient servant.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
God demands a reckoning for human life even from beasts, establishing sanctity of human blood.
Supported by JFB
Thirty shekels of silver is set as the price of a gored servant, shadowing Christ's betrayal.
Judas betrays Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave under Mosaic law.
Defines accidental manslaughter where God delivered the victim into his hand.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Historical execution of Joab who fled to the altar for a presumptuous murder.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Distinguishes premeditated murder from manslaughter, requiring no pity for the guilty.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallel prohibition against kidnapping and selling an Israelite brother into slavery.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Jesus quotes this verse directly to condemn Pharisaic evasion of parental honor.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Explicit penal law prescribing death for cursing father or mother.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Reiterates the judicial principle of life for life, eye for eye, without pity.
Codifies the standard of physical reciprocity: breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
Job recognizes the fundamental human rights of servants, echoing laws protecting them from abuse.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Paul admonishes masters to treat servants justly, reflecting the spiritual intent of Exodic protection.
Supported by Matthew Henry
New Testament allusion to selling debtors and their families to pay debt.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Historical citation of Israel's failure to release Hebrew servants after six years.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The foundational covenant decree establishing the death penalty for murder.
Supported by Matthew Poole
New Testament parallel ranking 'menstealers' (kidnappers) among the lawless.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Job’s personal standard of treating servants righteously before God.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Defines servants as an inheritance, explaining the phrase 'he is his money' in Mosaic context.
Unlike intentional murder, a ransom could be accepted for a death caused by a goring ox.
Supported by JFB
Connects directly to the preceding law of punishing masters who beat servants to death.
Prescribes that animals involved in gross violations of moral order must be put to death.
Parallel case of civil liability for damage caused by negligence (fire spreading vs. open pit).
Mandates safety features on a roof, demonstrating the general principle of liability for negligence.
Proverbial usage of the pit warning that whoever digs one may fall into it.