Exodus 21

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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. ✦ ³If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is 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 for ever. ✦ 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 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; ✦ 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 meat 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 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, ✦ 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, 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.

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Exod 21 ·12 Num 35 ·10 Deut 19 ·7 Deut 15 ·6 Exod 22 ·6 Deut 4 ·5 Prov 30 ·4 Lev 25 ·4

Christ at the center

The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.

How Exodus 21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryExpedition BibleJoel Kramer · Free · evangelical
On-location biblical archaeology from a credentialed archaeologist (M.A., excavated in Israel) — the best free place to start on "did it really happen?"
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
VideoSpoken GospelSpoken Gospel · Free · evangelical
Short, gospel-centered videos and spoken-word poems showing how each passage points to Jesus — especially strong on the Old Testament.
DocumentaryPatterns of Evidence: The ExodusTim Mahoney · Paid · evangelical
Investigates the archaeological evidence for the Exodus. Note: it advances a minority biblical chronology that mainstream scholars dispute — engaging, but weigh its conclusions critically.

Pastoral

★ Start hereCommentaryExodus (New American Commentary)Douglas K. Stuart · Paid · evangelical
The best evangelical, semi-technical commentary on Exodus — accessible to pastors and serious students.
DocumentaryThat the World May KnowRay Vander Laan · Paid · evangelical
Ray Vander Laan's on-location series immersing you in the Bible's historical and cultural world. (Mostly paid via Focus on the Family; some free clips.)
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Exodus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Exodus 21YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Exodus 21David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on ExodusMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Exodus 21Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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