Laws for Servants

(Deuteronomy 15:12-18)

1Now 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 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 God, 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 maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants 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 strange 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 duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. 11And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out for nothing, without money.

Personal Injury Laws

12He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall surely be 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. 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 smiteth 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 servant, or his maid, 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 mischief 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 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, and destroy it; 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.

28And if an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die, 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 gore 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 ransom, then he shall give for the redemption 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 gore a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Laws about Restitution

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, that he die; 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 his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his own.