Exodus 21

Read Exodus 21.

Exodus 21 continues the body of laws God gave to Moses, focusing primarily on regulations governing human relationships, personal rights, and accountability.

The chapter opens with laws concerning Hebrew servants, establishing that a Hebrew man sold into servitude was to serve for six years and go free in the seventh, without any payment required. If he came into service alone, he left alone; if he came with a wife, she left with him. However, if his master gave him a wife and she bore him children, the wife and children remained the master's when the man went free. If the servant declared his love for his master and his family and chose not to go free, his master was to bring him before the judges and pierce his ear with an awl at the doorpost, binding him to service permanently.

Exodus 21 also addresses female servants, noting that they did not go free after six years in the same way men did, though protections were established for them: If she displeased her master who had designated her for himself, he was required to let her be redeemed, and he was not permitted to sell her to foreigners. If his son took her, she was to be treated as a daughter. If the master took another wife, he could not diminish the first woman's food, clothing, or marital rights. If he failed in these obligations, she was to go free without payment.

The chapter then turns to matters of life and death, establishing serious consequences for violent acts. Anyone who struck another person and caused their death was to be put to death, though God made provision for unintentional killing by designating places of refuge. Deliberate, premeditated murder, however, carried no such exception — even a killer who fled to the altar was to be taken away and executed. Striking or cursing one's father or mother was likewise punishable by death, as was kidnapping a person and selling them or keeping them.

Laws about personal injury occupies a significant portion of Exodus 21. When two men quarreled and one struck the other, causing injury but not death, and the injured man recovered enough to walk around, the one who struck him was required to compensate the injured party for lost time and ensure his full recovery.

The chapter then addresses the treatment of servants. If a master struck a servant with a rod and the servant died from the beating, the master was to be punished. But, if the servant survived for a day or two, the master faced no punishment, as the servant was his property.

These laws also established the foundational principle of proportional justice: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and so on. However, if a master knocked out the tooth or destroyed the eye of a servant, the servant was to go free as compensation for that injury.

The final section of Exodus 21 deals with the liability of owners of dangerous animals. If an ox gored a person to death, the ox was to be stoned, but the owner bore no guilt if the animal had no history of aggression. But, if the ox had been known to gore and the owner took no precautions, both the ox and the owner were subject to death, though the owner could pay a ransom for his life if the victim's family agreed. Similar accountability applied if the ox gored a servant: The owner was to pay thirty shekels of silver to the servant's master.

The chapter closes with regulations about open pits. If someone dug or uncovered a pit and an animal fell into it and died, the one responsible for the pit was required to pay the animal's owner, while the dead animal became his own.