Exodus 21

Exodus 21

Exodus 21:1 “These are the judgments that you should explain to them.

Exodus 21:2 When you contract with a Hebrew slave, he should serve six years, and in the seventh he should go out free, for nothing.

Exodus 21:3 If he comes in single, he should go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife should go out with him.

Exodus 21:4 If his employer gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will be her employer’s, and he should go out alone.

Exodus 21:5 But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’

Exodus 21:6 then his employer should bring him to God, and he should bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his employer should bore his ear through with an awl, and he will be his slave permanently.

Exodus 21:7 “When a man contracts out his daughter as a female slave, she should not go out as the male slaves do.

Exodus 21:8 If she does not please her employer, who has designated her for himself, then he should let her be redeemed. He will have no right to sell her to foreign people, since he has broken faith with her.

Exodus 21:9 If he designates her for his son, he will deal with her justly as with a daughter.

Exodus 21:10 If he takes another wife to himself, he will not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

Exodus 21:11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she will go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Exodus 21:12 “Whoever hits a man so hard that he dies should be put to death.

Exodus 21:13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a location to which he may escape.

Exodus 21:14 But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him deliberately, you should take him even from my altar, so that he may die.

Exodus 21:15 “Whoever hits his father or his mother should be put to death.

Exodus 21:16 “Whoever kidnaps a man and sells him into slavery, and anyone found in possession of him, should be put to death.

Exodus 21:17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother should be put to death.

Exodus 21:18 “When men quarrel and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed,

Exodus 21:19 then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him will be clear; only he should pay for the loss of his time and should make sure he is thoroughly healed.

Exodus 21:20 “When a man hits his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he should be avenged.

Exodus 21:21 But if the slave recovers after a day or two, he is not to be avenged, because the slave is his silver.

Exodus 21:22 “When men fight together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no lasting harm to them, the one who hit her should surely be fined, whatever the woman’s husband will impose on him, and he should pay as the judges determine.

Exodus 21:23 But if there is lasting harm, then you will pay throat for throat,

Exodus 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Exodus 21:25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Exodus 21:26 “When a man hits the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he should let the slave go free because of his eye.

Exodus 21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he should let the slave go free because of his tooth.

Exodus 21:28 “When an ox gores a man or a woman, and death occurs, the ox should be stoned, and its meat should not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will not be liable.

Exodus 21:29 But if the ox has been given to goring in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept watch over it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox should be stoned, and its owner also should be put to death.

Exodus 21:30 If a redemption price is set for him, then he should give for the redemption of his throat whatever is set for him.

Exodus 21:31 If it gores a man’s son or daughter, he should be dealt with according to this same justice.

Exodus 21:32 If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner will give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox should be stoned.

Exodus 21:33 “When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit but does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

Exodus 21:34 the owner of the pit should make restoration. He should give money to its owner, and the dead animal will be his.

Exodus 21:35 “When one man’s ox butts another’s, so that it dies, then they should sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they will share.

Exodus 21:36 Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept watch over it, he should repay ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.

Exodus 21 quotes:

“For four centuries, from Joseph to Moses, God’s people had lived as slaves in Egypt. In the world of the Old Testament, “slave of the Lord” was a title of honor. In the Old Testament Abraham, David, Moses and Joshua are all referred to by the Hebrew word for slave (ebed). Though, slavery played only a minimal role in Jewish society, the Jews were the kindest of slaveholders in the ancient world. Jewish slavery was often so benign that a special provision was made for slaves who, after their time of servitude expired, chose to remain slaves. It has been called the “order of the pierced ear.”

Card, Michael. A Better Freedom : Finding Life as Slaves of Christ. InterVarsity Press, 2009, http://site.ebrary.com/id/10837631. p. 26.

“Perhaps the most crucial question for a Christian regarding abortion is whether God considers the unborn child a person. This question takes precedence over essentially pragmatic considerations such as socioeconomic distress, mental anguish, and illegitimacy. If the Scriptures clearly imply the personhood of the unborn, then Christians have an obligation to seek the protection of the unborn through educational, religious, and legislative action.”

Davis, John Jefferson. Abortion and the Christian : What Every Believer Should Know. Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1984. p. 40.

“One of the most general principles of God’s justice is the principle of similar measure. “As you have done, it will be done to you, your deeds will return upon your own head” (Obadiah 15). Jeremiah 50:29, Habakkuk 2:8, Joel 3:4, 7, and other passages articulate the same principle in varying forms. The famous law of punishment, “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Exodus 21:24), embodies the same principle in a specific juridical context. It was never intended as an excuse for personal vengeance but as a directive to judges making decisions regarding penalties in cases of injury (Exodus 21:22-25).”

Poythress, Vern S. The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses. P & R Pub., 1995. p. 123.