Exodus 21

“These are the ordinances you shall set before them. If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, without payment. If he came in alone, he shall go out alone. If he had a wife, his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave clearly declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ his master shall bring him before God and bring him to the door or the doorpost. His master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master, who has not designated her for himself, he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, because he has dealt faithlessly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall treat her according to the rights of daughters. If he takes another wife for himself, he shall not reduce her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. If he does not provide these three things for her, she shall go out free, without any payment. Whoever strikes a person so that he dies shall surely be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait and God delivered the person into his hand, I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man acts deliberately against his neighbor to kill him by deceit, you shall take him even from my altar to be put to death. Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Whoever kidnaps a person, whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and the injured man does not die but is confined to bed, then if he gets up and walks about outside with his staff, the one who struck him shall be acquitted. He shall only compensate him for his lost time and provide for his full recovery. If a man strikes his male slave or his female slave with a rod, and the slave dies under his hand, vengeance shall surely be taken. But if the slave survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken, for the slave is his money. If men fight and strike a pregnant woman, and her children are born, but there is no harm, the one responsible shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. If a man strikes the eye of his male slave or the eye of his female slave and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free in compensation for the eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his male slave or his female slave, he shall let the slave go free in compensation for the tooth. If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. But if the ox was known to gore in the past, and its owner had been warned but did not keep it under control, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on him, he shall pay whatever is imposed on him to redeem his life. Whether it gores a son or a daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this ordinance. If the ox gores a male slave or a female slave, the owner shall give their master thirty shekels of silver, about twelve ounces, and the ox shall be stoned. If a man uncovers a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution. He shall pay money to the animal’s owner, and the dead animal shall be his. If one man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox so that it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide its price, and they shall also divide the dead animal. But if it was known that the ox was accustomed to goring in the past, and its owner did not keep it under control, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall be his.”

Rights and attribution