Concerning Servants, Violence, and Animal Control

Exodus 21

THE RIGHTS OF SLAVES AND SLAVE OWNERS (21:1-11):
- Hebrew slaves were to serve their masters six years and then given their freedom.
- If a slave loved his master and wanted to continue working for him after 6 years, the master was to pierce the slave’s ear at the door of the house and the slave would remain in the master’s service for life.
- If an Israelite man bought a female slave, seemingly with the intention of marrying her, and she displeased him, he was to allow her to be redeemed by another Hebrew man, but she was not to be sold to a foreigner.
- If he bought the slave girl for his son, he was to treat her as a daughter.
- If a man married a slave girl and then married another wife, he wasn’t to treat his first wife poorly or neglect her.
- If he refused to keep these conditions the woman was to be set free.
LAWS PERTAINING TO VIOLENCE AND ABUSE (21:12-32):
- These verses contain God’s laws for how the Israelites were to deal with violent crimes, accidental harm done to another person, and violence done by animals.
- God laid out the judicial consequences for those who murdered, accidentally killed someone, those who struck or cursed their parents, masters who hit their slaves, men who injured one another in a fight, men who struck pregnant women, and animal owners whose animals harmed other people.
- In some cases, the punishments varied depending on the extent of the victim’s injuries.
LAWS REGARDING RESTITUTION FOR ANIMALS (21:33-36):
- If a man dug a pit and didn’t cover it, and an animal fell into the pit and died, the man who dug the pit was required to pay the owner for the animal.
- If one man’s ox killed another man’s ox, the live ox was to be sold and the money divided between the two men.
- If the ox was accustomed to goring other oxen, the man who owned the violent ox was required to pay full price for the ox his ox killed.