1 And these [are] the ordinances which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee, and in the seventh year he shall go forth free for nothing. 3 If he should have come in alone, he shall also go forth alone; and if his wife should have gone in together with him, his wife also shall go out. 4 Moreover, if his master give him a wife, and she have [born] him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be his master’s; and he shall go forth alone. 5 And if the servant should answer and say, I love my master and wife and children, I will not go away free; 6 his master shall bring him to the judgment seat of God, and then shall he bring him to the door—to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. 7 And if anyone sell his daughter as a domestic, she shall not depart as the maidservants depart. 8 If she be not pleasing to her master, after she has betrothed herself to him, he shall let her go free; but he is not at liberty to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has trifled with her. 9 And if he should have betrothed her to his son, he shall do to her according to the right of daughters. 10 And if he take another to himself, he shall not deprive her of necessaries and her apparel, and her companionship [with him]. 11 And if he will not do these three things to her, she shall go out free without money. 12 And if any man smite another and he die, let him be certainly put to death. 13 But as for him that did it not willingly, but God delivered him into his hands, I will give thee a place whither the slayer may flee. 14 And if anyone lie in wait for his neighbor to slay him by craft, and he go for refuge, thou shalt take him from mine altar to put him to death. 15 Whoever smites his father or his mother, let him be certainly put to death. 16 He that reviles his father or his mother shall surely die. 17 Whosoever shall steal one of the children of Israel, and prevail over him and sell him, and he be found with him, let him certainly die. 18 And if two men revile each other and smite the one the other with a stone or his fist, and he die not, but be laid upon his bed; 19 if the man arise and walk abroad on his staff, he that smote him shall be clear; only he shall pay for his loss of time, and for his healing. 20 And if a man smite his manservant or his maidservant, with a rod, and [the party] die under his hands, he shall be surely punished. 21 But if [the servant] continue to live a day or two, let not [the master] be punished; for he is his money. 22 And if two men strive and smite a woman with child, and her child be born imperfectly formed, he shall be forced to pay a penalty: as the woman’s husband may lay upon him, he shall pay with a valuation. 23 But if it be perfectly formed, he shall 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 one smite the eye of his manservant, or the eye of his maidservant, and put it out, he shall let them go free for their eye’s sake. 27 And if he should smite out the tooth of his manservant, or the tooth of his maidservant, he shall send them away free for their tooth’s sake. 28 And if a bull gore a man or woman and they die, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall be clear. 29 But if the bull should have been given to goring in former time, and men should have told his owner, and he have not removed him, but he should have slain a man or woman, the bull shall be stoned, and his owner shall die also. 30 And if a ransom should be imposed on him, he shall pay for the ransom of his soul as much as they shall lay upon him. 31 And if [the bull] gore a son or daughter, let them do to him according to this ordinance. 32 And if the bull gore a manservant or maidservant, he shall pay to their master thirty silver didrachmas, and the bull shall be stoned. 33 And if anyone open a pit or dig a cavity in stone, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall in there, 34 the owner of the pit shall make compensation; he shall give money to their owner, and the dead shall be his own. 35 And if any man’s bull gore the bull of his neighbor, and it die, they shall sell the living bull and divide the money, and they shall divide the dead bull. 36 But if the bull be known to have been given to goring in time past, and they have testified to his owner, and he have not removed him, he shall repay bull for bull, but the dead shall be his own. 37 And if one steal an ox or a sheep, and kill it or sell it, he shall pay five calves for a calf, and four sheep for a sheep.
Exodus · Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Exodus 21 Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Same Septuagint text as Brenton, with modernised spelling.
Cross references (28)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Deuteronomy 4:14; Deuteronomy 6:20; Exodus 24:3–4; Psalm 147:19; Matthew 28:20
- 2 Deuteronomy 15:12–15; Exodus 12:44; Deuteronomy 15:18; Nehemiah 5:1–5; Deuteronomy 15:1
- 3 Deuteronomy 15:12–14
- 5 2 Corinthians 5:14–15; Deuteronomy 15:16–17; Isaiah 26:13
- 6 Deuteronomy 15:17; Leviticus 25:40; Deuteronomy 19:17–18; 1 Samuel 28:2; 1 Samuel 27:12
- 7 Nehemiah 5:5; Exodus 21:2–3
- 8 Judges 14:3; Judges 9:19; Malachi 2:11–15; Genesis 28:8; Deuteronomy 21:11–14
- 10 1 Corinthians 7:1–6
- 12 Genesis 9:6; Matthew 26:52; Leviticus 24:17; Numbers 35:30–31; Numbers 35:16–24
- 13 Joshua 20:2–9; 1 Samuel 24:18; Deuteronomy 19:1–13; Deuteronomy 4:41–43; 1 Samuel 24:10
- 14 1 Kings 2:28–34; Hebrews 10:26; Deuteronomy 1:43; 1 Kings 1:50–51; Numbers 15:30–31
- 15 Proverbs 30:11; Deuteronomy 21:18–21; 1 Timothy 1:9; Deuteronomy 27:24; Proverbs 30:17
- 16 Deuteronomy 24:7; 1 Timothy 1:10; Exodus 22:4; Genesis 37:28; Genesis 40:15
- 17 Proverbs 20:20; Mark 7:10–11; Matthew 15:3–6; Deuteronomy 27:16; Proverbs 30:11
- 18 Exodus 21:20; Exodus 2:13; Deuteronomy 25:11; 2 Samuel 14:6; Numbers 35:16–24
- 19 2 Samuel 3:29; Zechariah 8:4
- 20 Proverbs 29:19; Deuteronomy 19:21; Isaiah 58:3–4; Numbers 35:30–33; Romans 13:4
- 21 Leviticus 25:44–46
- 22 Deuteronomy 22:18–19; Exodus 21:30; Deuteronomy 16:18
- 23 Deuteronomy 19:21; Numbers 35:31; Leviticus 24:19
- 24 Deuteronomy 19:21; Matthew 7:2; Matthew 5:38–40; Leviticus 24:19–20; Revelation 16:6
- 26 Nehemiah 5:5; Job 31:13–15; Colossians 4:1; Psalm 72:12–14; Exodus 21:20
- 28 Exodus 21:32; Genesis 9:5–6; Leviticus 20:15–16
- 29 Deuteronomy 21:1–9
- 30 Exodus 21:22; Exodus 30:12; Numbers 35:31–33; Proverbs 13:8
- 32 Zechariah 11:12–13; Matthew 26:15; Matthew 27:3–9; Genesis 37:28; Philippians 2:7
- 33 Jeremiah 18:22; Proverbs 28:10; Psalm 9:15; Ecclesiastes 10:8; Jeremiah 18:20
- 34 Exodus 21:29–30; Exodus 22:6; Exodus 22:14
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For, "honor," saith He, "thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest live long upon the earth." And again, "He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death." But He, omitting the first, the reward appointed for them that honor their parents, states that which is more awful, the punishment, I mean, threatened to such as dishonor them; …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… put no obstacle to godliness in our way, if we are ever carried away by ingratitude, and, forgetting their benefits to us, hold them in contempt, then the oracle will have place which says, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)