Exodus 21

¹⁴At that time the Lord commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

²⁰In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?”

³When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.”

⁴And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

¹⁹He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel.

²⁰and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

¹²If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.

¹³And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.

⁴⁴But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.

¹⁸Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.

¹About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

²Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

¹At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

⁸and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.

¹²If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.

¹³And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.

¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.

¹⁵And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you,

¹⁷then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

¹³O Lord our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we confess.

¹⁷then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

⁴⁰Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

¹⁷both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.

¹⁸The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother,

²David replied, “Then you will come to know what your servant can do.” “Very well,” said Achish. “I will make you my bodyguard for life.”

¹²So Achish trusted David, thinking, “Since he has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever.”

²³The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

⁵We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

²If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.

³If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him.

³But his father and mother replied, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes.”

¹⁹if you have acted faithfully and honestly toward Jerubbaal and his house this day, then may you rejoice in Abimelech, and he in you.

¹¹Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.

¹²As for the man who does this, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware—even if he brings an offering to the Lord of Hosts.

⁸And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,

¹¹if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,

¹²then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

⁷Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.”

¹Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

⁵²“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

¹⁷And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death.

³⁰If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

¹⁶If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁷Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

¹³Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” “The Lord has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.

²“Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,

³so that anyone who kills another unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

¹⁸And you have declared this day how you have treated me well, for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.

¹When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land He is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their cities and houses,

²then you are to set apart for yourselves three cities within the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

⁴¹Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east

⁴²to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

¹⁰Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the Lord delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed.’

⁴So David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do with him as you wish.’” Then David crept up and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

²⁸When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah but not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar.

²⁹It was reported to King Solomon: “Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and is now beside the altar.” So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down!”

²⁶If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,

⁴³So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country.

⁵⁰But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.

⁵¹It was reported to Solomon: “Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon first swear to me not to put his servant to the sword.’”

³⁰But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the Lord. That person shall be cut off from among his people.

³¹He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the Lord and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”

²⁰Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,

²¹or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.

¹¹There is a generation of those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,

¹⁹his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,

⁹We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers,

²⁴‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁷As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.

⁷If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

⁴If what was stolen is actually found alive in his possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—he must pay back double.

²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

¹⁵For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing for which they should have put me in this dungeon.”

²⁰Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

¹¹But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),

³Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

⁴For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

¹⁶‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹¹There is a generation of those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

⁹If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

²⁰If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.

¹³The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”

¹¹If two men are fighting, and the wife of one comes to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,

⁶And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.

¹⁶If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁷Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

²²If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.

²⁹May it whirl over the head of Joab and over the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”

⁴This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Old men and old women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of great age.

¹⁹A servant cannot be corrected by words alone; though he understands, he will not respond.

²¹You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

³“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.

⁴You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.

³⁰If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

⁴For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

¹⁹The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

⁴⁴Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.

⁴⁵You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land. These may become your property.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him.

¹⁹They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰If payment is demanded of him instead, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

²¹You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

¹⁹If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him:

²¹You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³⁸You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’

³⁹But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;

¹⁹If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him:

²⁰fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him.

⁶For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

⁶As Adoni-bezek fled, they pursued him, seized him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

⁷Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.

⁵We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

¹³If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

¹⁴what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

¹Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

¹²For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.

¹³He will take pity on the poor and needy and save the lives of the oppressed.

²⁰If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

³²If the ox gores a manservant or maidservant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of that servant, and the ox must be stoned.

⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

¹⁵If a man lies carnally with an animal, he must be put to death. And you are also to kill the animal.

¹⁶If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

²your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

²²If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.

¹²“When you take a census of the Israelites to number them, each man must pay the Lord a ransom for his life when he is counted. Then no plague will come upon them when they are numbered.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

³²Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

⁸Riches may ransom a man’s life, but a poor man hears no threat.

¹²Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

¹⁵and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.

³When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

⁴“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”

²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

⁷but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.

²⁸If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible.

²⁹But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

¹⁰He who leads the upright along the path of evil will fall into his own pit, but the blameless will inherit what is good.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

⁸He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

⁸⁵The arrogant have dug pits for me in violation of Your law.

²⁹But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.

³⁰If payment is demanded of him instead, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.

⁶If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that it consumes stacked or standing grain, or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.

¹⁴If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies while its owner is not present, he must make full restitution.