Exodus 21: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

God gives Moses a set of case laws to place before Israel, following the words spoken at Sinai. They cover Hebrew servants and how they gain their freedom, a daughter sold as a servant, killing and striking parents and kidnapping, injuries from fights, injuries to servants, and harm done by an ox or by an uncovered pit. Each law states a situation and the penalty or payment that follows.

Claim by Claim

1. 21:1
   • These are the judgments.
   • The judgments are to be set before the people.
2. 21:2
   • If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve six years.
   • In the seventh year he goes out free.
   • He goes out free without paying anything.
3. 21:3
   • If he came in alone, he goes out alone.
   • If he was the husband of a wife, his wife goes out with him.
4. 21:4
   • If his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children belong to the master.
   • In that case the man goes out alone.
5. 21:5
   • If the slave plainly declares that he loves his master, his wife, and his children, and that he will not go out free, the following applies.
6. 21:6
   • His master is to bring him before God, or before the judges; the term is ambiguous.
   • He is to bring him to the door or the doorpost.
   • His master is to pierce his ear through with an awl.
   • The man then serves his master permanently.
7. 21:7
   • If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she does not go out as the male slaves do.
8. 21:8
   • If she is displeasing to her master who designated her for himself, he must let her be redeemed.
   • He has no right to sell her to a foreign people.
   • The reason is that he has dealt treacherously with her.
9. 21:9
   • If he designates her for his son, he must deal with her according to the custom for daughters.
10. 21:10
    • If he takes another wife, he must not reduce her food.
    • He must not reduce her clothing.
    • He must not reduce her conjugal rights; the meaning of the third provision is uncertain.
11. 21:11
    • If he does not do these three things for her, she goes out free.
    • She goes out without payment of money.
12. 21:12
    • Whoever strikes a man so that he dies must surely be put to death.
13. 21:13
    • If the killer did not lie in wait, but God let it come to his hand, the following applies.
    • God will appoint a place to which such a killer may flee.
14. 21:14
    • If a man acts presumptuously against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, the following applies.
    • Such a man is to be taken even from God's altar to be put to death.
15. 21:15
    • Whoever strikes his father or his mother must surely be put to death.
16. 21:16
    • Whoever steals a man and sells him must surely be put to death.
    • Whoever steals a man and is found with him in his possession must surely be put to death.
17. 21:17
    • Whoever reviles his father or his mother must surely be put to death.
18. 21:18
    • If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and the man does not die but is confined to bed, the following applies.
19. 21:19
    • If the injured man gets up and walks outside on his staff, the one who struck him is acquitted.
    • The one who struck him must pay for the injured man's lost time.
    • The one who struck him must see that he is thoroughly healed.
20. 21:20
    • If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, the man must surely be punished.
21. 21:21
    • If the slave survives a day or two, the owner is not to be punished.
    • The reason is that the slave is his property.
22. 21:22
    • If men are fighting and they strike a pregnant woman so that her child comes out, and no further harm follows, the following applies; whether the child is born dead or merely prematurely is not specified.
    • The offender must be fined as the woman's husband imposes on him.
    • He must pay by the determination of judges; the term for the assessors is obscure.
23. 21:23
    • If further harm follows, you must give life for life.
24. 21:24
    • Eye for eye.
    • Tooth for tooth.
    • Hand for hand.
    • Foot for foot.
25. 21:25
    • Burn for burn.
    • Wound for wound.
    • Stripe for stripe.
26. 21:26
    • If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he must let the slave go free in compensation for the eye.
27. 21:27
    • If he knocks out the tooth of his male or female slave, he must let the slave go free in compensation for the tooth.
28. 21:28
    • If an ox gores a man or a woman so that the person dies, the ox must surely be stoned.
    • Its flesh must not be eaten.
    • The owner of the ox is not held liable.
29. 21:29
    • If the ox had been in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner had been warned, and he did not keep it in, and it killed a man or a woman, the following applies.
    • The ox must be stoned.
    • The owner must also be put to death.
30. 21:30
    • If a ransom is imposed on the owner instead, he must give whatever is imposed on him as the redemption of his life.
31. 21:31
    • If the ox gores a son or a daughter, the owner is dealt with according to this same rule.
32. 21:32
    • If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner must give thirty shekels of silver to the slave's master.
    • The ox must be stoned.
33. 21:33
    • If a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the following applies.
34. 21:34
    • The owner of the pit must make restitution.
    • He must pay money to the animal's owner.
    • The dead animal becomes his.
35. 21:35
    • If one man's ox injures another man's ox so that it dies, they must sell the live ox and divide the money from it.
    • They must also divide the dead ox.
36. 21:36
    • If it was known that the ox had been in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner did not keep it in, the following applies.
    • The owner must surely pay ox for ox.
    • The dead animal becomes his own.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

21:1

These rulings follow the Ten Commandments and run through chapter 23. They are case law, framed the way legal collections across the ancient Near East were framed: "if such-and-such happens, this is the ruling." They deal with situations that actually came before local judges rather than laying down general principles.

21:2

"Servant" here translates a Hebrew word that covers everything from a hired worker to a slave. An Israelite normally entered this state through debt or poverty, selling his own labor, or being sold, to clear what he owed. The six-year limit and free release in the seventh apply to fellow Hebrews; the law elsewhere treats foreign slaves differently. "He pays nothing for it" means no redemption price is owed for his release.

21:3

The question is whether he arrived single or already married. A wife he brought in with him leaves with him, because she was never the master's property in the first place.

21:4

A wife given by the master was herself the master's slave, so she and any children remained his property. This is what sets up the choice in the next verses.

21:6

"To the judges" translates a Hebrew word that literally means "God" or "the gods." It may mean the local judges acting as God's representatives, or it may mean the sanctuary where such cases were decided; the phrase is genuinely ambiguous. Piercing the ear against the door or doorpost of the household left a permanent, visible mark of attachment to that house. "For life" translates a word meaning "for the duration", how long that was is not spelled out here.

21:7

A daughter sold in this way was not simply a laborer; the following verses assume she was bought as a wife or secondary wife for the buyer or his son. That is why the six-year release does not apply to her, and why the verses that follow give her a different set of protections instead.

21:8

"Bought back" means her own family, or someone acting for them, pays a price to recover her. "Set her apart for himself" translates a word for designating her as his own wife. In the Hebrew there is a long-standing variant here: the consonants as written say "who has not designated her for himself," while the traditional reading is "who has designated her for himself." Selling her on to foreigners is barred because it would put her beyond the reach of her family's right to buy her back.

21:9

Treating her "after the manner of daughters" means giving her the standing of a daughter-in-law inside the family, not the standing of a slave.

21:10

The first two items are food and clothing. The third is disputed: the Hebrew word occurs only here and has traditionally been taken as conjugal rights, though some read it as oil or ointment, or as shelter. What is clear is that taking a second wife may not reduce what the first is owed.

21:11

If he fails on any one of the three, she walks out free and her family owes nothing back on the price he paid for her.

21:12

"Must be put to death" renders a fixed legal formula (a doubled Hebrew verb) marking an offense as capital. It appears again in verses 15, 16, 17 and 29.

21:13

This is unintentional killing, no ambush, no plan. "God let the man fall into his hand" is the Hebrew way of describing an outcome nobody intended. The place of refuge referred to here is spelled out later as designated cities where such a killer could live safely from the dead man's avenging relatives.

21:14

The altar was a place of asylum: a man who grabbed its projecting corners (its "horns") could claim protection while his case was heard. This verse says that protection does not cover deliberate murder: he is dragged away from it.

21:15

This applies to striking a parent even when the parent survives, since killing anyone at all is already covered three verses earlier. An attack on the head of a household struck at the structure the whole society was built on.

21:16

This is kidnapping, in practice for the slave trade. The offense is complete whether the victim has already been sold on or is still being held.

21:17

The Hebrew verb means to belittle, treat with contempt, or call down harm on someone, not merely to use foul language. It is the opposite of the "honour" commanded of children elsewhere.

21:18

"Keepeth his bed" means he is laid up and cannot get about.

21:19

Being able to get outside with a stick is the legal test that the injury was not fatal; once the man passes it, the assailant is not liable for a death. He still owes the victim's lost earnings and his medical costs.

21:20

The Hebrew says the death "shall be avenged", a word normally used of blood vengeance, but the verse does not state what the penalty is, and it is not the standard capital formula used in verse 12. Ancient and modern readers have disagreed about how severe it was meant to be.

21:21

"The servant is his property" is literally "he is his silver": the owner has already lost the money he paid, and the law treats that loss as the consequence. The verse is stating the reasoning behind the ruling, not commenting on it.

21:22

Two things are disputed here. "Her child comes out of her" may mean a miscarriage or a premature but living birth, the Hebrew phrase does not decide it. And "further harm" may mean harm to the mother or harm to the child; that too is left open. The ruling is that without such harm the penalty is a fine, assessed by the husband and confirmed by the court, while with it the scale of verses 23–25 applies.

21:23

Life for life means the punishment must match the harm. It must not be bigger than the harm.

21:24

This matched list is a standard formula in ancient Near Eastern law. It fixes the penalty at the exact measure of the injury, which sets a ceiling as well as a floor: no more may be exacted than was inflicted. Whether it was carried out literally or settled in money was already argued over in antiquity, and later Jewish law read it as compensation.

21:25

A "stripe" or welt is the mark left by a lash or a blow.

21:26

These two verses set a limit on how an owner may treat a slave: permanent injury cancels the ownership outright, and freedom is the compensation, paid to the slave rather than to anyone else.

21:28

Stoning the ox destroys it as a punishment rather than slaughtering it for food, and the ban on eating its meat means the owner recovers nothing from the carcass. He himself is not liable because the animal was not known to be dangerous.

21:29

"Was warned" is literally "it was testified to his owner", a formal warning given in front of witnesses, which is what makes him legally responsible the next time.

21:30

A payment accepted in place of a life. Elsewhere the law refuses to let a deliberate murderer buy his way out; this case, where the man did not kill with his own hands, is the exception.

21:31

"A son or a daughter" means somebody's child rather than an adult, and "unto him" means the owner. The rule does not change because the victim was young.

21:32

A shekel was a weight of silver, roughly eleven or twelve grams; coins did not yet exist, so silver was weighed out. Thirty shekels is a fixed price paid to the slave's owner for the loss of his property, rather than a compensation to the victim's family.

21:33

Pits were dug as cisterns to store water or as storage for grain, and an uncovered one in open country was a real hazard to livestock. The dead animal goes to the man who pays for it, so he keeps the hide and whatever else it is worth.

21:34

"Make it good" means pay the animal's full value. The carcass then goes to the man who paid, since he has in effect bought the animal, and the hide and meat were worth something.

21:35

Where neither owner was at fault, both share the loss equally: the price of the surviving ox and the carcass of the dead one are split between them.

21:36

Here the owner knew what his animal was like and did nothing, so he carries the whole loss: a live ox to replace the dead one, and he is left holding the carcass.