Exodus

Chapter 21

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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.

A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.

1These are the rules you shall set before them.

2When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.

Notes (1)

Translation
Eved is a slave, a person owned for service. “Servant” would soften the purchase. “Slave” is printed.

3If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is a woman’s husband, his wife shall go out with him.

Notes (1)

Translation
Begappo is by himself, with only his own body. “Alone” is the sense.

4If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out by himself.

5If the slave says, he says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free,”

6his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

Notes (1)

Translation
Ha-elohim is “God.” In this legal setting the word can be read as “the judges.” “God” is printed, because that is the word. “The judges” is the live alternative.

7When a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves go out.

8If she is bad in her master’s eyes, who did not designate her, he shall let her be redeemed. He shall not have power to sell her to a foreign people, since he broke faith with her.

Notes (1)

Text
The written word is לא, “not”: who did not designate her. The Masoretic reading is לו, “for him”: who designated her for himself. The written “not” is printed.

9If he designates her for his son, he shall treat her according to the judgment for daughters.

10If he takes another woman for himself, he shall not reduce her food, her clothing, or her marital due.

Notes (1)

Translation
She’erah is her flesh, her food. Kesutah is her clothing. Onatah is uncertain. “Her marital due” is printed. “Her oil” is the live alternative.

11If he does not do these three for her, she shall go out for nothing, with no silver.

12Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death, he shall be put to death.

13If he did not lie in wait, and God let it meet his hand, I will set a place for you where he can flee.

14When a man acts insolently against his fellow, to kill him with cunning, you shall take him from my altar to die.

15Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death, he shall be put to death.

16Whoever steals a man and sells him, or he is found in his hand, shall be put to death, he shall be put to death.

17Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death, he shall be put to death.

18When men dispute and one strikes his fellow with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die but falls to his bed,

19if he gets up and walks outside on his staff, the one who struck him shall be clear. Only he shall give his loss of time, and he shall have him fully healed.

20When a man strikes his male slave or his female slave with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall be avenged, he shall be avenged.

21But if he stands a day or two days, he shall not be avenged, because he is his silver.

22When men fight and they strike a pregnant woman so that her children come out, and there is no harm, he shall be fined, he shall be fined, as the woman’s husband sets on him, and he shall give it by the assessors.

Notes (1)

Translation
Yatz’u yeladeha is “her children come out.” The Hebrew does not say whether they live. “There is no harm” is the next clause, and it is not folded into the birth. Biflilim is by the assessors, the ones who decide the amount.

23If there is harm, you shall give life in place of life,

24an eye in place of an eye, a tooth in place of a tooth, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot,

Notes (1)

Translation
Tachat is “in place of.” The replacement is printed. A stock phrase is not used.

25a burn in place of a burn, a wound in place of a wound, a bruise in place of a bruise.

26When a man strikes the eye of his male slave or the eye of his female slave and destroys it, he shall send him away free in place of his eye.

27If he knocks out the tooth of his male slave or the tooth of his female slave, he shall send him away free in place of his tooth.

28When an ox gores a man or a woman and that person dies, the ox shall be stoned, it shall be stoned, and its meat shall not be eaten, and the ox’s owner is clear.

29If the ox was a gorer from yesterday and the day before, and its owner was warned and did not guard it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner too shall be put to death.

30If a ransom is set on him, he shall give the redemption of his life, whatever is set on him.

31Whether it gores a son or gores a daughter, this judgment shall be done to him.

32If the ox gores a male slave or a female slave, he shall give thirty shekels of silver to his master, and the ox shall be stoned.

33When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

34the owner of the pit shall pay. He shall return silver to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.

35When one man’s ox strikes his fellow’s ox and it dies, they shall sell the live ox and split its silver, and they shall also split the dead one.

36Or if it was known that the ox was a gorer from yesterday and the day before, and its owner did not guard it, he shall pay, he shall pay, ox in place of ox, and the dead one shall be his.

Exodus

Chapter 21

A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.

1These are the rules you shall set before them.

2When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.

Notes (1)

Translation
Eved is a slave, a person owned for service. “Servant” would soften the purchase. “Slave” is printed.

3If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is a woman’s husband, his wife shall go out with him.

Notes (1)

Translation
Begappo is by himself, with only his own body. “Alone” is the sense.

4If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out by himself.

5If the slave says, he says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free,”

6his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

Notes (1)

Translation
Ha-elohim is “God.” In this legal setting the word can be read as “the judges.” “God” is printed, because that is the word. “The judges” is the live alternative.

7When a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves go out.

8If she is bad in her master’s eyes, who did not designate her, he shall let her be redeemed. He shall not have power to sell her to a foreign people, since he broke faith with her.

Notes (1)

Text
The written word is לא, “not”: who did not designate her. The Masoretic reading is לו, “for him”: who designated her for himself. The written “not” is printed.

9If he designates her for his son, he shall treat her according to the judgment for daughters.

10If he takes another woman for himself, he shall not reduce her food, her clothing, or her marital due.

Notes (1)

Translation
She’erah is her flesh, her food. Kesutah is her clothing. Onatah is uncertain. “Her marital due” is printed. “Her oil” is the live alternative.