[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. [3] If he comes in by himself,
he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out
with him. [4] If 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. [5] But 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 to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the
door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he
shall serve him for ever. [7] "If a man sells his daughter to be a
maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do. [8] If 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, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her. [9] If he marries her to
his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. [10] If he
takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her
clothing, and her marital rights. [11] If 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, [13] but not if it is
unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place
where he shall flee. [14] If 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; [19] if 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, he shall surely be punished. [21] Notwithstanding, if
he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he 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. [23] But if any
harm follows, then you must take life for life, [24] eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, [25] burning 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. [27] If he strikes out his man-servant`s tooth, or his maid-servant`s
tooth, he shall let him 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 flesh
shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held
responsible. [29] But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it
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. [30] If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for
the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him. [31] Whether it has
gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be
done to him. [32] If the bull gores a man-servant or a maid-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, [34] the 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. [36] Or 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.
