Exodus 21:1-22:15

Civil Justice

We don?t live in a perfect world, do we? Every culture has their own way of dealing with crime - some do a good job, some not so much. As we wrap up our study of Exodus twenty-one today, we?ll examine what it was like during the days of Moses and the lessons we can learn from them.

  1. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
  2. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
  3. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
  4. If 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.
  5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
  6. Then 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 awl; and he shall serve him for ever.
  7. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
  8. If 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.
  9. And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
  10. If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
  11. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
  12. He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
  13. And 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.
  14. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
  15. And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
  16. And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
  17. And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
  18. And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
  19. If 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.
  20. And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
  21. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
  22. If 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.
  23. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
  24. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
  25. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
  26. And 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.
  27. And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
  28. If 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.
  29. But 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.
  30. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
  31. Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
  32. If 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.
  33. And 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;
  34. The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
  35. And 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.
  36. 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 own.
  1. If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
  2. If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
  3. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
  4. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.
  5. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.
  6. If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
  7. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house; if the thief be found, let him pay double.
  8. If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbor's goods.
  9. For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbor.
  10. If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast, to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it:
  11. Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.
  12. And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof.
  13. If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that which was torn.
  14. And if a man borrow ought of his neighbor, and it be hurt, or die, the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good.
  15. But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good: if it be an hired thing, it came for his hire.