BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Exodus 21 — Laws on Servants, Violence, and Property
A collection of case laws covering the release of Hebrew servants after six years, capital punishment for murder, kidnapping, and assault on parents, the lex talionis, and liability rules for harmful animals and open pits.
Scripture
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 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 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 duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
11And if he do not these three things 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 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 neighbor, 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 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 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 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 man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
28And if an ox gore a man or a woman to death, 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 it hath been testified 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 man-servant or a maid-servant, there shall be given 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 thereof, 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.
What this passage means
Exodus 21 opens the second major block of the Sinai legislation (sometimes called the Book of the Covenant) with a series of case laws introduced by the formula in verse 1 about setting ordinances before the people. The chapter moves through several domestic and social spheres: the status and release of Hebrew servants (vv. 2–11), crimes against persons (vv. 12–17), bodily injuries in brawls and toward slaves (vv. 18–27), and then a switch to property damage and liability involving livestock and open pits (vv. 28–36). The unifying principle is that the community's life is ordered by publicly known rules, applied through judges and witnesses, rather than by private vengeance.
The slave regulations assume a framework in which poverty could force an Israelite into servitude, but the system is bounded: a Hebrew servant serves six years and goes free without payment in the seventh (v. 2), entering and leaving under the same marital status (v. 3). A servant who loves his master and family may choose lifelong service, marked publicly by having his ear pierced at the doorpost (vv. 5–6). Daughters sold into service receive additional protections: they cannot be treated like male servants and must be redeemed, not sold abroad, if the master reneges (vv. 7–9); if a master takes another wife, he must not reduce her food, clothing, or conjugal rights, and failure to provide these three things frees her without payment (vv. 10–11).
The criminal statutes apply the principle that deliberate, premeditated wrongdoing is treated as a capital matter (vv. 12, 14, 16, 17), while unintentional killing is distinguished (v. 13) and prefigured by the provision that a killer may be taken even from the altar. Assaults causing injury invoke the lex talionis — life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth (vv. 23–25) — which functions as a ceiling on retaliation rather than a literal requirement. Slaves who suffer permanent injury to eye or tooth must be released (vv. 26–27). The final sections impose strict liability on owners of known-dangerous oxen (vv. 28–32) and on those who leave a pit uncovered (vv. 33–34), with damage between animals settled by sale and division (v. 35).
Context
The curated note simply records that chapter 21 was filled in from chapters of Exodus outside priority tracks, so it offers no additional commentary. The chapter itself reads as continuous case legislation following the Ten Commandments of chapter 20, and is followed by further laws in chapters 22–23 dealing with property, social responsibilities, and justice before concluding the covenant code. The cross references supplied with the chapter situate it within a broader legal tradition: Deuteronomy 15:12, 15:17, and Deuteronomy 24:7 echo the slave-release and kidnap rules; Deuteronomy 4:14 frames these ordinances as something Moses taught Israel for the land of possession; Leviticus 24:17 parallels the homicide rule; Joshua 20:2, 20:9 point toward cities of refuge for the unintentional killer mentioned in verse 13; Genesis 9:6 supplies the image-of-God rationale for capital punishment; and Proverbs 20:20 and Deuteronomy 22:18–19 pair with the verses on cursing parents and judicial fines.
Taken together, the provided notes treat Exodus 21 as foundational case law that is reaffirmed and elaborated in later books. The Hebrew servant release in verse 2 resurfaces in Deuteronomy 15:12; the ear-boring ritual of verse 6 in Deuteronomy 15:17; the death penalty for manstealing in verse 16 in Deuteronomy 24:7. Verse 13's allowance for an unintentional killer links forward to the cities of refuge in Joshua 20. No source material provided here enters into questions of authorship, dating, or modern legal application.
Key words in the original
- H4941 Used in verse 1 for the 'ordinances' Israel is to receive. The gloss captures its range: verdict, decree, judgment, or judicial sentence — public rulings rather than private agreements.
- H5680 In verse 2 it modifies 'servant,' signaling that the six-year limit and seventh-year release apply specifically to an Israelite (descendant of Eber) sold into service, not to foreign slaves.
- H2670 In verse 2 it qualifies the seventh-year manumission: the servant goes out 'free' — exempt from further bonded service and without any redemption payment.
Related verses
- Deuteronomy 15:12 Reaffirms Exodus 21:2 by directing that a Hebrew man or woman sold into service must be released in the seventh year, extending the same release rule explicitly to women.
- Deuteronomy 24:7 Pairs with verse 16 of this chapter, treating kidnap-and-sale as a capital offense and instructing Israel to purge such evil from the community.
- Joshua 20:2 Provides the procedural destination for the unintentional killer described in Exodus 21:13, instituting the cities of refuge where such a person may flee from the avenger of blood.
Common questions
Why does the chapter begin with the formula 'set before them' in verse 1?
The phrase introduces the case laws as publicly taught rules, set before the people rather than hidden or reserved for leaders. It frames chapters 21–23 as accessible judicial rulings the community is to know and apply.
How does the lex talionis in verses 23–25 function in practice?
The formula 'life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth' (vv. 23–25) sets proportionality as an upper bound on retaliation and a baseline for compensation. Within the chapter itself, the next two verses convert the principle into cash-equivalent freedom: a slave whose eye or tooth is knocked out is released for that injury (vv. 26–27).
What distinguishes an unintentional killing in verse 13 from a presumptuous one in verse 14?
Verse 13 allows provision — a place of refuge — when God 'delivers' a person into another's hand without human premeditation. Verse 14, by contrast, condemns as 'presumptuous' (literally 'upon his neighbor with guile') any killer who planned the act, and forbids even the altar from shielding such a person. The supplied cross reference Joshua 20:2 carries verse 13's provision into the institution of cities of refuge.