Laws for Servants

(Deuteronomy 15:12-18)

1These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

2If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him. 4But if his master gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daughters; the woman and her children shall be her master's: but he himself shall go out with his raiment. 5And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free: 6His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his servant for ever.

7If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bondwomen are wont to go out. 8If she displease the eyes of her master to whom she was delivered, he shall let her go: but he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign nation, if he despise her. 9But if he have betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 10And if he take another wife for him, he shall provide her a marriage, and raiment, neither shall he refuse the price of her chastity. 11If he do not these three things, she shall go out free without money.

Personal Injury Laws

12He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death. 13But he that did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands: I will appoint thee a place to which he must flee. 14If a man kill his neighbour on set purpose, and by lying in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my altar that he may die.

15He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.

16He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of the guilt, shall be put to death.

17He that curseth his father or mother, shall die the death.

18If men quarrel, and the one strike his neighbour 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, he that struck him shall be quit, yet so that he make restitution for his work, and for his expenses upon the physicians.

20He that striketh his bondman, or bondwoman, with a rod, and they die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime. 21But if the party remain alive a day or two, he shall not be subject to the punishment, because it is his money.

22If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman's husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award. 23But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life, 24Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26If any man strike the eye of his manservant or maidservant, and leave them but one eye, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out. 27Also if he strike out a tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he shall in like manner make them free.

28If an ox gore a man or a woman, and they die, he shall be stoned: and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit. 29But if the ox was wont to push with his horn yesterday, and the day before, and they warned his master, and he did not shut him up, and he shall kill a man or a woman: then the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. 30And if they set a price upon him, he shall give for his life whatsoever is laid upon him. 31If he have gored a son, or a daughter, he shall fall under the like sentence. 32If he assault a bondman or bondwoman, he shall give thirty sicles of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.

Laws about Restitution

33If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall into it, 34The owner of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.

35If one man's ox gore another man's ox, and he die: they shall sell the live ox, and shall divide the price, and the carcass of that which died they shall part between them: 36But if he knew that his ox was wont to push yesterday, and the day before, and his master did not keep him in; he shall pay ox for ox, and shall take the whole carcass.