New American Standard Bible | ►► |
Ordinances for the People
1“Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:
2“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall leave as a free man without a payment to you.
3If he comes [a]alone, he shall leave [b]alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall leave with him.
4If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall leave [c]alone.
5But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not leave as a free man,’
6then his master shall bring him to [d]God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an [e]awl; and he shall serve him permanently.
7“Now if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to [f]go free as the male slaves [g]do.
8If she is [h]displeasing in the eyes of her master [i]who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people, because of his [j]unfairness to her.
9And if he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.
10If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her [k]food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.
11But if he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go [l]free for nothing, without payment of money.
Personal Injuries
12“He who strikes someone so that he dies shall certainly be put to death.
13Yet [m]if he did not lie in wait for him, but God caused him to fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.
14If, however, someone is enraged against his neighbor, so as to kill him in a cunning way, you are to take him even from My altar, to be put to death.
15“And one who strikes his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.
16“Now one who [n]kidnaps someone, whether he sells him or he is found in his [o]possession, shall certainly be put to death.
17“And one who curses his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.
18“Now if people have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die but [p]is confined to bed,
19if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his [q]loss of time, and [r]shall pay for his care until he is completely healed.
20“And if someone strikes his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies [s]at his hand, he shall [t]be punished.
21If, however, the slave [u]survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for the slave is his [v]property.
22“Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that [w]she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined