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Exodus Chapter 21

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¹ Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

² If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

³ If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴ If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

⁵ And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

⁶ Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

⁷ And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

⁸ If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

⁹ And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

¹⁰ If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

¹¹ And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

¹² He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

¹³ And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.

¹⁴ But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.

¹⁵ And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

¹⁶ And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷ And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

¹⁹ If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰ And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.

²¹ Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

²² If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

²³ And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

²⁴ 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 a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.

²⁷ And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.

²⁸ If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.

²⁹ But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

³⁰ If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

³¹ Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.

³² If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³ And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;

³⁴ The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵ And if one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.

³⁶ Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.

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View All Exodus Chapter 21 Comments...

GiGi's Exodus Chapter 21 comment about verse 24 on 7/06/2022, 6:17pm...

Exodus Chapter 21.

This chapter starts out "Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them.." and goes on to list many scenarios where a judgment from a judge or magistrate may need to make decisions for the parties involved. These judgments were for the Israelites in that time period as they were being grown into a nation. It seems that God was setting down a civil judicial system concerning matters that would emerge or had emerged among the people. This chapter makes me think of when Moses tried to adjudicate matters among the people on his own and Jethro suggested that Moses set up adjudicators from the tribes to settle most matters, leaving Moses to attend to meeting with the LORD and leading the people as a whole.

God knew ahead of time that there would be a need for such judgments concerning the civil affairs of these chosen people. He must have wanted to establish His way of settling matters, disputes, and offences among the people before they encountered people from the surrounding areas and began to adopt these "foreigner's" civil laws. Very likely that these foreign tribes had judgments that were unjust and inhumane. God is interjecting a better way of civil jurisprudence for the Israelites to help preserve justice and order in these people and to markedly distinguish His chosen nation from those the Israelites will encounter and share territory with.

Although to some of us in our time would read these judgments and scratch our heads as to whether they are truly just or not. But for me, I will not question God's holy justice. I will just accept that He instructed the Israelites according to His good an perfect will. So, perhaps the lesson for me is not to necessarily understand these judgments or the scenarios that prompt the judgments or the culture of these days. Rather, the lesson to me is, do I truly believe these are God's Words and are therefore true and right and will I defend God's right to judge as He pleases despite these words.

Zev's Exodus Chapter 21 comment about verse 10 on 5/11/2021, 2:40am...

Servitude is an arguable aspect when you consider the dependency of a job and the financial burden placed when its lost. This is not the same thing. When you remove that financial burden, that occupation is now a choice. There is no contractual requirement.

Don't forget, women are servants forever. In addition, you can purchase a woman from the father or guardian and force them to be your wife. The crazy part is, this still exists today in other cultures. They are not forced, but if declining means you are disowned and put on the street and a dishonor to your family... its a more difficult situation as it includes the financial burden as above, but it also includes an emotional component of losing communication to your family which cant be easily remedied.

The "great viewpoints" in this chapter was that it did provide more rights than before. If no one told them that they couldn't own a male slave for 10 years, they would have... Granted, that notion was lost at some point until slavery was abolished.

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