Previous Chapter Full Page Full Page Next Chapter

Exodus 21 :: New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95)

Ordinances for the People

(Deu 15:12–18 )

Exo 21:1

Exo 21:1“Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:

Exo 21:2

Exo 21:2“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

Exo 21:3

Exo 21:3“If he comes [fn]alone, he shall go out [fn]alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

Exo 21:4

Exo 21:4“If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out [fn]alone.

Exo 21:5

Exo 21:5“But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’

Exo 21:6

Exo 21:6then his master shall bring him to [fn]God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

Exo 21:7

Exo 21:7“If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to [fn]go free as the male slaves [fn]do.

Exo 21:8

Exo 21:8“If she is [fn]displeasing in the eyes of her master [fn]who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his [fn]unfairness to her.

Exo 21:9

Exo 21:9“If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.

Exo 21:10

Exo 21:10“If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her [fn]food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.

Exo 21:11

Exo 21:11“If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Personal Injuries

Exo 21:12

Exo 21:12“He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.

Exo 21:13

Exo 21:13“But [fn]if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.

Exo 21:14

Exo 21:14“If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die.

Exo 21:15

Exo 21:15“He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Exo 21:16

Exo 21:16“He who [fn]kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his [fn]possession, shall surely be put to death.

Exo 21:17

Exo 21:17“He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Exo 21:18

Exo 21:18“If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but [fn]remains in bed,

Exo 21:19

Exo 21:19if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his [fn]loss of time, and [fn]shall take care of him until he is completely healed.

Exo 21:20

Exo 21:20“If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies [fn]at his hand, he shall [fn]be punished.

Exo 21:21

Exo 21:21“If, however, he [fn]survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his [fn]property.

Exo 21:22

Exo 21:22“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that [fn]she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband [fn]may demand of him, and he shall pay [fn]as the judges decide.

Exo 21:23

Exo 21:23“But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,

Exo 21:24

Exo 21:24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Exo 21:25

Exo 21:25burn for burn, wound for wound, [fn]bruise for bruise.

Exo 21:26

Exo 21:26“If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

Exo 21:27

Exo 21:27“And if he [fn]knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

Exo 21:28

Exo 21:28“If an ox gores a man or a woman [fn]to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.

Exo 21:29

Exo 21:29“If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.

Exo 21:30

Exo 21:30“If a ransom is [fn]demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is [fn]demanded of him.

Exo 21:31

Exo 21:31“Whether it gores a son or [fn]a daughter, it shall be done to him according to [fn]the same rule.

Exo 21:32

Exo 21:32“If the ox gores a male or female slave, [fn]the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Exo 21:33

Exo 21:33“If a man opens a pit, or [fn]digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

Exo 21:34

Exo 21:34the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall [fn]give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.

Exo 21:35

Exo 21:35“If one man’s ox hurts another’s so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price equally; and also they shall divide the dead ox.

Exo 21:36

Exo 21:36“Or if it is known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his.
See the NASB95 Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NASB95 Footnotes
Literally: by himself
Literally: by himself
Or, the judges who acted in God's name
Literally: go out
Literally: bad
Another reading is so that he did not designate her
Literally: dealing treacherously
Literally: flesh
Literally: he who
Literally: steals
Literally: hand
Literally: lies
Literally: his sitting
Literally: healing, he shall cause to be healed
Literally: under
Literally: suffer vengeance
Literally: stands
Literally: money
Or, an untimely birth occurs; lit her children come out
Literally: lays on him
Literally: by arbitration
Literally: welt
Literally: causes to fall
Literally: so that he dies
Literally: laid on him
Literally: gores a daughter
Literally: this judgment
Literally: he
Literally: if a man digs
Literally: give back
Translation Copyright Logo

New American Standard Bible 1995
Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
All rights reserved
https://www.lockman.org/new-american-standard-bible-nasb/

The "NASB," "NAS," "New American Standard Bible," and "New American Standard" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by The Lockman Foundation. Use of these trademarks requires the permission of The Lockman Foundation.

For Permission To Quote visit http://www.lockman.org

For more information on this translation, see the NASB95 Preface.

Translations available: King James Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, New International Version, English Standard Version, Christian Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible 2020, New American Standard Bible 1995, Legacy Standard Bible 2021, New English Translation, Revised Standard Version, American Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation, Darby Translation, Webster's Bible, Hebrew Names Version, Reina-Valera 1960, Latin Vulgate, Westminster Leningrad Codex, Septuagint, Morphological Greek New Testament, and Textus Receptus.