- 1Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
- 2If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
- 3If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
- 4If 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.
- 5And 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 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 aul; 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.
- 8If 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.
- 9And if he have betrothed 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 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.
- 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.
- 14But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 21Notwithstanding, 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.
- 23And if any mischief 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.
- 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.
- 27And 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.
- 29But 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.
- 30If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
- 31Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
- 32If 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;
- 34The 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.
- 36Or 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.
KING JAMES VERSION
EXODUS 21
Read the chapter, follow a linked verse, and continue into related Watchman 33 teaching.
CHAPTER VISUAL
Exodus 21 — Israel receives judgments governing service, injury, restitution, negligence, and responsibility for harm.
About this illustration
Several civil judgments are expressed through a peaceful hearing and visible acts of responsibility. Sensitive penalties and bodily injuries are not reenacted, avoiding graphic or misleading specificity.
Scripture basis: Exodus 21:1–36King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom
EXPLORE THE MESSAGE
Related Watchman 33 Resources
Archaeological Evidence
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Ancient Near Eastern or Second Temple period; see cited catalog
Hammurabi Law Stele
The Louvre stele of Hammurabi joins a royal justice image, prologue, hundreds of conditional rulings, and epilogue on a 2.25-meter monument, offering a major comparison for biblical law without functioning as Moses’s sourcebook or a modern statutory code.
Exodus 21:1–36
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Ancient Near Eastern or Second Temple period; see cited catalog
Laws of Eshnunna
Two Old Babylonian tablets from Tell Harmal and a later fragment preserve an Akkadian legal collection older than Hammurabi, including prices, family law, bodily injury, and liability for a known goring ox or vicious dog.
Exodus 21:28–36
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
seventeenth to fifteenth centuries BC, especially Levels VII and IV
The Alalakh Tablets from Tell Atchana
Legal, administrative, diplomatic, and economic tablets from Bronze Age Alalakh preserve contracts, treaties, court cases, censuses, and royal seals. They offer a securely excavated comparison for the treaty, household, labor, and fugitive institutions encountered in the Pentateuch.
Deuteronomy 23:15–16 · Exodus 21:1–11 · Genesis 26:26–31
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Original composition about 2100 BC; surviving copies chiefly Old Babylonian
The Laws of Ur-Nammu
Damaged Sumerian tablets preserve the earliest substantially surviving royal law collection, placing biblical case laws within a much older Mesopotamian tradition of justice, compensation, and calibrated penalties.
Exodus 21:1–36 · Exodus 22:1–31 · Deuteronomy 24:17–22
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Original early nineteenth century BC; surviving Old Babylonian copies
The Laws of Lipit-Ishtar from Nippur
Joined clay fragments from Nippur preserve a Sumerian law collection of King Lipit-Ishtar, pairing a royal justice prologue with cases on households, inheritance, property, slavery, and compensation.
Exodus 21:1–11 · Deuteronomy 21:15–17 · Leviticus 25:39–55
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Demons & Deliverance Part 4: Accursed Objects & Demonic Healing
In “Demons & Deliverance Part 4 - Accursed Objects & Demonic Healing,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about demons and deliverance, idolatry and occult influence, Satanic opposition. Drawing especially from John 10:10, 1 John 3:8, Revelation 12:11, Revelation 12:10, the teaching emphasizes that demonic influence must be answered through Christ’s authority and the freedom He provides. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that objects and practices tied to idolatry are treated as spiritual compromises that should be renounced.
Spiritual WarfareHealing and Miracles
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