Bible Study Exodus 21
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Exodus 21 · WEB

Laws on Servants, Violence, and Personal Injury

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"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
2"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
3If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he was married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4If his master gives him a wife and she bears 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 to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
7"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.
8If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter.
10If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
11If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
12"One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
13but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
14If a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, you shall take him even from my altar, that he may die.
15"Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
16"Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17"Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18"If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;
19if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.
20"If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
21Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.
22"If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.
23But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
26"If a man strikes his servant's eye or his maid's eye and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
27If he strikes out his male servant's tooth or his female servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
28"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.
29But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
30If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.
31Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
32If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the bull shall be stoned.
33"If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it,
34the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
35"If one man's bull injures another's bull so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.
36Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own."
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Summary

Following the Ten Commandments, God gives Moses detailed case laws ("the Book of the Covenant") for governing community life. This chapter addresses: Hebrew debt-servants and their rights (including voluntary permanent servitude), female servants and their protections, capital offenses (murder, attacking parents, kidnapping, cursing parents), bodily injury and its compensation, the lex talionis ("eye for eye"), protections for servants, and laws of animal liability. These laws reflect a society ordered by justice, proportionality, and concern for the vulnerable.

Themes

  • Justice as proportionality — punishment fitting the offense
  • Protection of the vulnerable: servants, women, the accidentally injured
  • The distinction between intentional and unintentional harm
  • Law as the practical application of loving your neighbor

Key verses

  • Ex 21:14 — “If a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, you shall take him even from my altar, that he may die.”
  • Ex 21:23-24 — “You must take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth…" (lex talionis — proportional justice)”
  • Ex 21:6 — “The voluntary permanent servant whose ear is pierced — a picture of love-motivated service.”

Context & background

These case laws (chapters 21-23) are known as the "Book of the Covenant" (referenced in Exodus 24:7) and represent ancient Near Eastern law adapted for a covenant community. Similar legal codes (Hammurabi's Code from Babylon, the Laws of Eshnunna) address comparable situations, but Israel's law is distinctive in its theological grounding and its concern for servants and foreigners. The famous lex talionis ("eye for eye") was not a license for revenge but a limit on retaliation — punishment must not exceed the injury. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 5:38-39, not abolishing it but fulfilling it with an even higher standard of grace. These laws were given in the Sinai Peninsula (modern Egypt) but intended for life in Canaan (modern Israel/Palestine).

Cross-references

  • Deuteronomy 15:12-18 — Expands on the Hebrew servant law, including the ear-piercing ceremony.
  • Galatians 3:19 — Paul says the law was "added because of transgressions" — it governs a fallen community.
  • Leviticus 24:17-22 — Parallels the lex talionis principle across multiple situations.
  • Matthew 5:38-39 — Jesus cites and transcends "eye for eye" with the command to turn the other cheek.

Check your reading

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  1. Observe

    According to verse 2, how long must a Hebrew servant serve before going out free?

  2. Observe

    What does the master do to the servant who chooses to remain in service forever (v. 6)?

  3. Interpret

    What is the primary function of the "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" principle in verses 23-25?

  4. Interpret

    Why does the law sharply distinguish between intentional and unintentional killing (vv. 12-14)?

  5. Apply

    What does the chapter's repeated concern for servants, women, and the injured most directly challenge believers to do?

  6. Apply

    How does the principle of proportional justice apply to personal conflicts today?

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