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Exodus
Chapter 21
1
Now these are the judgments
which
you shall set before them.
2
If you buy an Hebrew servant/slave,
six
years he shall serve
and
in the seventh {year}
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 has given him a wife,
and
she have borne 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 awl;
and
he shall serve him forever.
{Note: It was the custom of the day that if a person from his free will wanted to be a slave and the master agreed, that he would literally put an awl through his ear and 'nail' him to the front door. That was the symbol that this 'deal' was agreed to by both parties. The scar in the ear was a life-long testimony to the transaction.}
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
has 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 has dealt deceitfully with her.
9
And if he has betrothed her unto his son,
he
shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10
If he takes him another wife;
her
food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage,
shall
he not diminish.
11
And if he does not these three unto her,
then
shall she go out free without money.
12
He who smites a man, so that he die,
shall
be surely put to death.
13
And if a man lie not in wait,
but
'Elohiym/Godhead deliver him into his hand;
then
I will appoint you a place whither he shall flee.
{Verses
14-17: Capital Punishment for 1st Degree Murder}
14
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor,
to
slay him with guile/craftiness;
you
shall take him from My altar,
that
he may die.
15
And he who smites/strikes his father, or his mother,
shall
be surely put to death.
{Theft
and Slave Trade}
16
And he who steals a man, and sells him,
or
if he be found in his hand,
he
shall surely be put to death.
17
And he who curses his father, or his mother,
shall
surely be put to death.
18
And if men strive together,
and
one smites/strikes another with a stone,
or
with his fist, and he die not,
but
keeps his bed . . .
{idiom for being bedridden}19
if
he rise again,
and
walk abroad upon his staff,
then
shall he who smote him be quit/'purged from guilt'.
{means he will not be put to death since the victim did not die}
Only
he shall pay for the loss of his time,
and
shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
{Murder
of a Slave is Not a Capital Offense}
20
And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a staff/rod,
and
he die under his hand;
he
shall be surely punished.
{Note: If a master kills his slave, then the master will be punished monetarily, but God does not consider this 1st degree murder.}
21
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two,
he
shall not be punished
for
he is his 'money'.
{Principal
- No Life in the Womb - Murder of an Embryo not a Capital Offence}
22~~And
if men struggle/fight . . .
and
strike/hurt a pregnant woman . . .
so
that she has a miscarriage . . .
and
yet there is no further injury . . .
he
{the offender} will definitely be fined,
according
as the woman's husband may demand of him . . .
and
he shall pay as the judges decides
{the
husband states his damages and the judges decide a fair
amount- financial
damages only - no criminal charges}.
{Capital
Punishment though if the Mother Dies}
23~~But
if there is any greater injury
{death to the Mother},
then
you will give life for a life.
24
Eye for eye,
tooth
for tooth,
hand
for hand,
foot
for foot, 25
burning
for burning,
wound
for wound,
stripe/whipping
for stripe/whipping.
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/'purged from guilt'.
29
But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past,
and
it has been testified to his owner,
and
he has not kept him in,
but
that he has 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 animal/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 has used to push in time past,
and
his owner has not kept him in;
he
shall surely pay ox for ox;
and
the dead shall be his own.
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