1. “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.
3. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4. If 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.
5. But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’
6. Then 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 for ever.
7. “If a man sells his daughter to be a maid servant, she shall not go out as the men servants do.
8. If 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, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9. If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
11. If 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,
13. But not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
14. If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him 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;
19. If 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.
21. Notwithstanding, 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.
23. But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
24. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25. Burning 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.
27. If he strikes out his man servant’s tooth, or his maid 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.
29. But 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.
30. If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.
31. Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
32. If the bull gores a man servant or a maid servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox 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,
34. The 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, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.
36. Or 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.
Chapter 22
1. “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it, or sells it; he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
2. If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.
3. If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt of bloodshed for him; he shall make restitution. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
4. If the stolen property is found in his hand alive, whether it is ox, donkey, or sheep, he shall pay double.
5. “If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten, and lets his animal loose, and it grazes in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field, and from the best of his own vineyard.
6. “If a fire breaks out, and catches in thorns so that the shocks of grain, or the standing grain, or the field are consumed; he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
7. If a man delivers to his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house; if the thief is found, he shall pay double.
8. If the thief isn’t found, then the master of the house shall come near to God, to find out if he hasn’t put his hand to his neighbor’s goods.
9. For every matter of trespass, whether it be for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing, whereof one says, ‘This is mine,’ the cause of both parties shall come before God. He whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.
10. If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep, and it dies or is injured, or driven away, no man seeing it;
11. The oath of יהוה shall be between them both, whether he hasn’t put his hand to his neighbor’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution.
12. But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to the owner of it.
13. If it is torn in pieces, let him bring it for evidence. He shall not make good that which was torn.
14. “If a man borrows anything of his neighbor’s, and it is injured, or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make restitution.
15. If the owner of it is with it, he shall not make it good. If it is a leased thing, it came for its lease.
16. “If a man entices a virgin who isn’t pledged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife.
17. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
18. “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
19. “Whoever has sex with an animal shall surely be put to death.
20. “He who sacrifices to any god, except to יהוה only, shall be utterly destroyed.
21. “You shall not wrong an alien, neither shall you oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
22. “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.
23. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry;
24. And my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
25. “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor; neither shall you charge him interest.
26. If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,
27. For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.
28. “You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
29. “You shall not delay to offer from your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. “You shall give the firstborn of your sons to me.
30. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep. Seven days it shall be with its mother, then on the eighth day you shall give it me.
31. “You shall be holy men to me, therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by animals in the field. You shall cast it to the dogs.
Chapter 23
1. “You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
2. You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;
3. Neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.
4. “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
5. If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him, you shall surely help him with it.
6. “You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
7. “Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.
8. You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
9. “You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, seeing you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
10. “For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,
11. But the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
12. “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.
13. “Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth.
14. “You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
15. You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.
16. And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field: and the feast of harvest, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.
17. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord יהוה.
18. “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.
19. The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of יהוה your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
20. “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
21. Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.
22. But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
23. For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.
24. You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
25. You shall serve יהוה your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst.
26. No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
27. I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
28. I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
29. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.
30. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
31. I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
32. You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Chapter 24
1. He said to Moses , “Come up to יהוה, you, and Aaron , Nadab , and Abihu , and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance.
2. Moses alone shall come near to יהוה, but they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him.”
3. Moses came and told the people all the words of יהוה, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which יהוה has spoken will we do.”
4. Moses wrote all the words of יהוה, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
5. He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to יהוה.
6. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7. He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that יהוה has spoken will we do, and be obedient.”
8. Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which יהוה has made with you concerning all these words.”
9. Then Moses , Aaron , Nadab , Abihu , and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.
10. They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness.
11. He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.
12. יהוה said to Moses , “Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them.”
13. Moses rose up with Joshua , his servant, and Moses went up onto God’s Mountain.
14. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.”
15. Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
16. The glory of יהוה settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17. The appearance of the glory of יהוה was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18. Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.