Old Testament

New Testament

Exodus 21:4-19 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

4. But if his lord gave him a wife, and she has borne sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her lord. Yet still, he himself will go out with his clothing.

5. And if the servant will say, 'I love my lord, and my wife and children, I will not depart freely,'

6. then his lord shall make an offering for him to the heavens, and it shall be applied to the door and the posts, and he will pierce his ear with an awl. And he shall be his servant in perpetuity.

7. If anyone sells his daughter to be a servant, she shall not depart as a female servant is accustomed to go out.

8. If she displeases the eyes of her lord, to whom she had been delivered, he shall dismiss her. But he shall have no authority to sell her to a foreign people, even if he despises her.

9. But if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall treat her according to the custom with daughters.

10. And if he takes another for him, he shall provide to the maiden a marriage, and clothing, and he shall not refuse the price of her chastity.

11. If he does not do these three things, she shall depart freely, without money.

12. Whoever strikes a man, intending to murder, shall be put to death.

13. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands, then I will appoint for you a place to which he must flee.

14. If someone murders his neighbor with deliberation, by lying in wait, you shall tear him away from my altar, so that he may die.

15. Whoever strikes his father or mother shall die a death.

16. Whoever will have stolen a man and sold him, having been convicted of the crime, shall be put to death.

17. Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother shall die a death.

18. If men will have quarreled, and one of them has struck his neighbor with a stone or a fist, and he does not die, but lies in bed,

19. if he gets up again and can walk outside on his staff, he who struck him will be innocent, but only if he makes sufficient restitution for his deeds and for the cost of the physicians.

Read complete chapter Exodus 21