January 24
Exodus 21:1 23:19


21
 “And these are the judicial decisions that you are to set before them:
     2 “In case you should buy a Hebrew slave, he will be a slave six years, but in the seventh he will go out as one set free without charge. 3 If he should come in by himself, by himself he will go out. If he is the owner of a wife, then his wife must go out with him. 4 If his master should give him a wife and she does bear him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will become her master’s and he will go out by himself. 5 But if the slave should insistently say, ‘I really love my master, my wife and my sons; I do not want to go out as one set free,’ 6 then his master must bring him near to the [true] God and must bring him up against the door or the doorpost; and his master must pierce his ear through with an awl, and he must be his slave to time indefinite.

     7 “And in case a man should sell his daughter as a slave girl, she will not go out in the way that the slave men go out. 8 If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master so that he does not designate her as a concubine but causes her to be redeemed, he will not be entitled to sell her to a foreign people in his treacherously dealing with her. 9 And if it should be to his son that he designates her, he is to do to her according to the due right of daughters. 10 If he should take another wife for himself, her sustenance, her clothing and her marriage due are not to be diminished. 11 If he will not render these three things to her, then she must go out for nothing, without money.

     12 “One who strikes a man so that he actually dies is to be put to death without fail. 13 But where one does not lie in wait and the [true] God lets it occur at his hand, then I must fix for you a place where he can flee. 14 And in case a man becomes heated against his fellow to the point of killing him with craftiness, you are to take him even from being at my altar to die. 15 And one who strikes his father and his mother is to be put to death without fail.

     16 “And one who kidnaps a man and who actually sells him or in whose hand he has been found is to be put to death without fail.
    
17 “And one who calls down evil upon his father and his mother is to be put to death without fail.
    
18 “And in case men should get into a quarrel and one does strike his fellow with a stone or a hoe and he does not die but must keep to his bed; 19 if he gets up and does walk about out of doors upon some support of his, then the one who struck him must be free from punishment; he will make compensation only for the time lost from that one’s work until he gets him completely healed.
    
20 “And in case a man strikes his slave man or his slave girl with a stick and that one actually dies under his hand, that one is to be avenged without fail. 21 However, if he lingers for a day or two days, he is not to be avenged, because he is his money.

     22 “And in case men should struggle with each other and they really hurt a pregnant woman and her children do come out but no fatal accident occurs, he is to have damages imposed upon him without fail according to what the owner of the woman may lay upon him; and he must give it through the justices. 23 But if a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 branding for branding, wound for wound, blow for blow.

     26 “And in case a man should strike the eye of his slave man or the eye of his slave girl and he really ruins it, he is to send him away as one set free in compensation for his eye. 27 And if it should be the tooth of his slave man or the tooth of his slave girl that he knocks out, he is to send him away as one set free in compensation for his tooth.

     28 “And in case a bull should gore a man or a woman and that one actually dies, the bull is to be stoned without fail, but its flesh is not to be eaten; and the owner of the bull is free from punishment. 29 But if a bull was formerly in the habit of goring and warning was served on its owner but he would not keep it under guard, and it did put a man or a woman to death, the bull is to be stoned and also its owner is to be put to death. 30 If a ransom should be imposed upon him, then he must give the redemption price for his soul according to all that may be imposed upon him. 31 Whether it gored a son or gored a daughter, it is to be done to him according to this judicial decision. 32 If it was a slave man or a slave girl that the bull gored, he will give the price of thirty shekels to that one’s master, and the bull will be stoned.

     33 “And in case a man should open a pit, or in case a man should excavate a pit and should not cover it, and a bull or an ass does fall into it, 34 the owner of the pit is to make compensation. The price he is to return to its owner, and the dead animal will become his own. 35 And in case a man’s bull should hurt another’s bull and it does die, then they must sell the live bull and divide the price paid for it; and also the dead one they should divide. 36 Or if it was known that a bull was in the habit of goring formerly but its owner would not keep it under guard, he should without fail make compensation with bull for bull, and the dead one will become his own.


22  “In case a man should steal a bull or a sheep and he does slaughter it or sell it, he is to compensate with five of the herd for the bull and four of the flock for the sheep.

     2 (“If a thief should be found in the act of breaking in and he does get struck and die, there is no bloodguilt for him. 3 If the sun has shone forth upon him, there is bloodguilt for him.)
     “He is to make compensation without fail. If he has nothing, then he must be sold for the things he stole. 4 If there should be unmistakably found in his hand what was stolen, from bull to ass and to sheep, alive, he is to make double compensation.

     5 “If a man causes a field or a vineyard to be grazed over and he does send out his beasts of burden and cause a consuming in another field, he is to make compensation with the best of his own field or with the best of his own vineyard.
    
6 “In case a fire should spread out and it does catch thorns, and sheaves or standing grain or a field gets consumed, the one who started the fire is to make compensation without fail [for what was burned].
    
7 “In case a man should give his fellow money or articles to keep, and it gets stolen from the man’s house, if the thief should be found, he is to make double compensation. 8 If the thief should not be found, then the owner of the house must be brought near to the [true] God to see whether he did not put his hand upon the goods of his fellow. 9 As regards any case of transgression, concerning a bull, an ass, a sheep, a garment, anything lost of which he may say, ‘This is it!’ the case of them both is to come to the [true] God. The one whom God will pronounce wicked is to make double compensation to his fellow.
    
10 “In case a man should give his fellow an ass or bull or sheep or any domestic animal to keep, and it does die or get maimed or gets led off while nobody is looking, 11 an oath by Jehovah is to take place between them both that he did not put his hand on the goods of his fellow; and their owner must accept it, and the other is not to make compensation. 12 But if they should for a fact be stolen from him, he is to make compensation to their owner. 13 If it should for a fact be torn by a wild beast, he is to bring it as evidence. For something torn by a wild beast he is not to make compensation.
    
14 “But in case anybody should ask for something of his fellow, and it does get maimed or die while its owner is not with it, he is to make compensation without fail. 15 If its owner is with it, he is not to make compensation. If it is hired, it must come in its hire.

     16 “Now in case a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and he actually lies down with her, he is to obtain her without fail as his wife for the purchase price. 17 If her father flatly refuses to give her to him, he is to pay over the money at the rate of purchase money for virgins.

     18 “You must not preserve a sorceress alive.
    
19 “Anyone lying down with a beast is positively to be put to death.
    
20 “One who sacrifices to any gods but Jehovah alone is to be devoted to destruction.
    
21 “And you must not maltreat an alien resident or oppress him, for YOU people became alien residents in the land of Egypt.
    
22 “YOU people must not afflict any widow or fatherless boy. 23 If you should afflict him at all, then if he cries out to me at all, I shall unfailingly hear his outcry; 24 and my anger will indeed blaze, and I shall certainly kill YOU with the sword, and YOUR wives must become widows and YOUR sons fatherless boys.

     25 “If you should lend money to my people, to the afflicted alongside you, you must not become like a usurer to him. YOU must not lay interest upon him.
    
26 “If you should at all seize the garment of your fellow as a pledge, you are to return it to him at the setting of the sun. 27 For it is his only covering. It is his mantle for his skin. In what will he lie down? And it must occur that he will cry out to me, and I shall certainly hear, because I am gracious.
    
28 “You must not call down evil upon God nor curse a chieftain among your people.
    
29 “Your full produce and the overflow of your press you must not give hesitantly. The firstborn of your sons you are to give to me. 30 The way you are to do with your bull and your sheep is this: Seven days it will continue with its mother. On the eighth day you are to give it to me.
    
31 “And YOU should prove yourselves holy men to me; and YOU must not eat flesh in the field that is something torn by a wild beast. YOU should throw it to the dogs.

23  “You must not take up an untrue report. Do not cooperate with a wicked one by becoming a witness who schemes violence. 2 You must not follow after the crowd for evil ends; and you must not testify over a controversy so as to turn aside with the crowd in order to pervert justice. 3 As for the lowly one, you must not show preference in a controversy of his.

     4 “Should you come upon your enemy’s bull or his ass going astray, you are to return it without fail to him. 5 Should you see the ass of someone who hates you lying down under its load, then you must refrain from leaving him. With him you are without fail to get it loose.

     6 “You are not to pervert the judicial decision of your poor man in his controversy.
    
7 “You are to keep far from a false word. And do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I shall not declare the wicked one righteous.
    
8 “You are not to accept a bribe, for the bribe blinds clear-sighted men and can distort the words of righteous men.
    
9 “And you must not oppress an alien resident, as YOU yourselves have known the soul of the alien resident, because YOU became alien residents in the land of Egypt.

     10 “And for six years you are to sow your land with seed and you must gather its produce. 11 But the seventh year you are to leave it uncultivated and you must let it lie fallow, and the poor ones of your people must eat of it; and what is left over by them the wild beasts of the field are to eat. That is the way you are to do with your vineyard and your olive grove.
    
12 “Six days you are to do your work; but on the seventh day you are to desist, in order that your bull and your ass may rest and the son of your slave girl and the alien resident may refresh themselves.
    
13 “And YOU are to be on your guard respecting all that I have said to YOU; and YOU must not mention the name of other gods. It should not be heard upon your mouth.

     14 “Three times in the year you are to celebrate a festival to me. 15 You will keep the festival of unfermented cakes. You will eat unfermented cakes seven days, just as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because in it you came out of Egypt. And they must not appear before me empty-handed. 16 Also, the festival of harvest of the first ripe fruits of your labors, of what you sow in the field; and the festival of ingathering at the outgoing of the year, when you gather in your labors from the field. 17 On three occasions in the year every male of yours will appear before the face of the [true] Lord, Jehovah.

     18 “You must not sacrifice along with what is leavened the blood of my sacrifice. And the fat of my festival should not stay overnight until morning.
    
19 “The best of the first ripe fruits of your ground you are to bring to the house of Jehovah your God.
     “You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.