The big picture
God has spoken his main commands to Israel, the people freed from slavery in Egypt. Moses, their leader, now receives more detailed judgments to set before them. These laws address a society that permits slavery and uses animals for work. They regulate release, family claims, killing, injury, and responsibility for dangerous property. Some rules shield people from harm. Others treat a slave as worth less than a free person because a master owns them.
In this chapter
- A Hebrew Servant Faces Release Choices Exodus 21:1-6
A bought Hebrew man serves six years.
- A Sold Daughter Has Specific Protections Exodus 21:7-11
A daughter sold into service with a view to marriage faces different rules from a male servant.
- Intentional Killing Receives a Death Penalty Exodus 21:12-17
Killing a person brings death, but an unplanned death is treated differently from a deliberate ambush.
- Injury Brings Payment or Release Exodus 21:18-27
A man who injures another must pay for lost time and healing if the victim recovers.
- Known Danger Makes the Owner Answerable Exodus 21:28-32
An ox that kills a person must be stoned, and its meat cannot be eaten.
- Careless Owners Must Replace Lost Animals Exodus 21:33-36
Someone who leaves a pit uncovered must pay when another person's ox or donkey falls in and dies.
Central truth
God gives laws that make people answer for harm, but those laws still allow slavery and unequal treatment of the people involved.
Scripture beside the summary
Exodus · King James Version · 36Exodus 21:1-6
A Hebrew Servant Faces Release Choices
A bought Hebrew man serves six years. In year seven he leaves without paying for his freedom. A wife who came with him leaves with him. But a wife supplied by his master, and her children, remain the master's property. If the man chooses to stay with his master and family, he declares that choice before judges. His ear is pierced at a doorway, marking lifelong service. The law provides release but also permits a painful division of the household. The master still owns the wife and children he loves. That gives the choice a bitter cost.
In everyday life
A prison visitor watches her brother fold his release papers after hearing that his wife must remain in custody. The open gate will not bring the household out together. He weighs his own new freedom against the people he must leave behind. The servant's wife and children are property, unlike relatives held under separate court sentences.
Notice
Exodus 21:4 Freedom for the man does not automatically free a wife supplied by the master. That rule explains why choosing to remain is not a simple preference.
Exodus 21:1-6
King James Version1Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
2If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
5And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
6Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Exodus 21:7-11
A Sold Daughter Has Specific Protections
A daughter sold into service with a view to marriage faces different rules from a male servant. If her buyer rejects her as his promised wife, he must let her be bought back. He cannot sell her to foreigners. If the marriage is to his son, she has the rights of a daughter in his home. A new wife must not reduce her food, clothes or rights within marriage. Without these, she leaves free of charge. These limits still permit a father to sell his child.
In everyday life
The advocate reads a dependant spouse's support agreement beside three unpaid bills. A new marriage in the household has left her without the food and clothing previously promised. The advocate points to obligations that do not disappear when another person arrives. Protection needs enforceable terms. The ancient law permits a daughter's sale, a condition this support dispute does not share.
Notice
Exodus 21:10 A later wife does not cancel the earlier woman's support and marital claims. The law names needs that the man is not allowed to reduce.
Exodus 21:7-11
King James Version7And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
8If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
9And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
11And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
Exodus 21:12-17
Intentional Killing Receives a Death Penalty
Killing a person brings death, but an unplanned death is treated differently from a deliberate ambush. God will appoint a place of escape for the former case. A person who kills deliberately cannot use God's altar as shelter from the penalty. Striking or cursing a parent also brings death. So does seizing a person to sell or keep as a slave. These penalties are severe. A planned death differs from an accident. God's holy place will not shield a man who has chosen to kill.
In everyday life
A court clerk separates an accident file from evidence of a planned attack. The same death result does not make the circumstances identical. She also records that the accused person's respected public role cannot remove the need to answer the charge. The evidence must be heard. These ancient laws prescribe penalties that differ from a modern court's rules.
Notice
Exodus 21:14 Even the altar cannot protect a deliberate killer from judgment. A sacred place is not permission to escape responsibility for planned violence.
Exodus 21:12-17
King James Version12He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
13And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
14But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
15And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
16And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
Exodus 21:18-27
Injury Brings Payment or Release
A man who injures another must pay for lost time and healing if the victim recovers. A master is punished if a beaten slave dies immediately. If the slave survives a day or two, punishment is withheld because the slave is his property. A pregnant woman hurt in a fight receives a court-set payment. If further harm follows, the penalty must match it. Readers differ over details of that pregnancy law. A slave whose eye or tooth is destroyed must go free. Some injuries lead to freedom. Yet other rules plainly give slaves fewer rights than the people who own them.
In everyday life
The claims assessor studies hospital invoices, missed wages, and a report of lasting injury. She refuses to treat every case as the same small inconvenience. What happened to a body has consequences for work and life afterward. A payment must answer actual harm. The ancient rules also treat enslaved people as property, unlike this modern claims process.
Notice
Exodus 21:27 Losing a tooth through the master's violence requires the slave's release. This protection is specific, even though the surrounding laws preserve unequal status.
Exodus 21:18-27
King James Version18And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
19If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
20And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
21Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
22If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
27And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.
Exodus 21:28-32
Known Danger Makes the Owner Answerable
An ox that kills a person must be stoned, and its meat cannot be eaten. If the owner had no warning of its violence, he is not punished. But if the ox was known to gore and he failed to restrain it, he faces death too. A ransom can be imposed instead. The rule includes sons and daughters. When the victim is an enslaved man or woman, the owner pays thirty shekels to the master, and the ox dies. An owner who knew the danger bears more blame. Payment also changes if the person killed was a slave.
In everyday life
A dog owner reads the written warning about his broken gate and puts it back in a drawer. After another escape injures a passer-by, the earlier notice becomes part of the inquiry. The danger was known before the harm occurred. Failing to restrain it matters. Exodus assigns death and ransom under laws unlike present-day animal liability.
Notice
Exodus 21:29 The owner's earlier warning is decisive. The law distinguishes an unforeseen attack from death caused by leaving a known danger uncontrolled.
Exodus 21:28-32
King James Version28If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
30If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
31Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
32If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
Exodus 21:33-36
Careless Owners Must Replace Lost Animals
Someone who leaves a pit uncovered must pay when another person's ox or donkey falls in and dies. The dead animal becomes the pit owner's property after payment. If an ox kills another without warning, the owners sell the live one. They share its price and the dead beast. That changes if the ox was known to gore. An owner who failed to keep it in must provide a replacement. The rules distinguish shared loss from neglect. A person's control of land or livestock carries responsibility for harm caused to a neighbour.
In everyday life
The householder leaves a deep drain open beside a shared lane. A neighbour's delivery cart drops into it and breaks. He cannot answer that the cart belonged to someone else; the uncovered hole was his responsibility. He pays for the damage his neglect caused. Money repairs the cart, but this law fixes a transfer of living and dead animals.
Notice
Exodus 21:36 A known habit of goring removes the equal division used in the previous case. Prior knowledge makes the negligent owner bear the replacement cost.
Exodus 21:33-36
King James Version33And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
34The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
35And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.
36Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Exodus 21:1 begins with “Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.”
Where the chapter turns
Exodus 21:14 forms a natural hinge: “But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.”
The final note
Exodus 21:36 leaves the reader with “Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words surely, master, owner, death, free, hand help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- aul
- A pointed tool used to pierce a small hole.
- betrothed
- Formally pledged to marry, with a binding commitment already made.
- raiment
- Clothing, here part of the support owed to a wife.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
