The Tanakh · JPS 1917 Translation

Exodus 21

Jewish Publication Society 1917 · Torah

Exodus chapter 21 — part of the Torah in the Jewish Bible. In the classic JPS 1917 translation it opens: “Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.” — the complete text of all 37 verses is below, free to read online.

1Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.

2If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

3If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4If his master give him a wife, and she bear him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

5But 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 G-d, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.

7And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.

8If she please not her master, who hath espoused her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed; to sell her unto a foreign people he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

9And if he espouse 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 conjugal rights, shall he not diminish.

11And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out for nothing, without money.

12He that smiteth a man, so that he dieth, shall surely be put to death.

13And if a man lie not in wait, but G-d cause it to come to hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he may flee.

14And 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.

18And if men contend, and one smite the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keep 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 bondman, or his bondwoman, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished.

21Notwithstanding if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his money.

22And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he shall be surely fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

23But if any harm 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 bondman, or the eye of his bondwoman, and destroy it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.

27And if he smite out his bondman's tooth, or his bondwoman's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.

28And if an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.

29But if the ox was wont to gore in time past, and warning hath been given to its owner, and he hath not kept it in, but it hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.

30If there be laid on him a ransom, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

31Whether it have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.

32If the ox gore a bondman or a bondwoman, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

33And 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; he shall give money unto the owner of them, and the dead beast shall be his.

35And if one man's ox hurt another's, so that it dieth; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the price of it; and the dead also they shall divide.

36Or if it be known that the ox was wont to gore in time past, and its owner hath not kept it in; he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his own.

37If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

37 verses · JPS 1917 (public domain)

‹ Exodus 20 Exodus 22 ›

Read, search & bookmark — free

This text opens instantly in the FourFaiths reader, with full-text search across every book, bookmarks saved in your browser, reading plans and a verse of the day. No account, no tracking — everything runs locally in your browser.

Open in the Tanakh reader →