Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.
If thou buy a Hebrew {Or, bondman}servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master give him a wife and she bear him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
then his master shall bring him unto {Or, the judges}God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.
And if a man sell his daughter to be a {Or, bondwoman}maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.
If she please not her master, {Another reading is, so that he hath not espoused her.}who hath espoused her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a foreign people he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
And if he espouse her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
If he take him another wife; her {Hebrew: flesh.}food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
And if he do not these three things unto her, then shall she go out for nothing, without money.
He that smiteth a man, so that he dieth, shall surely be put to death.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
And if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
And he that {Or, revileth}curseth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
And if men contend, and one smite the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keep his bed;
if he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for {Hebrew: his sitting or ceasing.}the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
And if a man smite {Or, his bondman, or his bondwoman}his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall surely be punished.
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow; he shall be surely fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, and destroy it; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
And if an ox gore a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
But if the ox was wont to gore in time past, and it hath been testified to its owner, and he hath not kept it in, but it hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.
If there be laid on him a ransom, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
Whether it have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
If the ox gore a man-servant or a maid-servant, there shall be given unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein,
the owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money unto the owner thereof, and the dead beast shall be his.
And if one man's ox hurt another's, so that it dieth, then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the price of it; and the dead also they shall divide.
Or if it be known that the ox was wont to gore in time past, and its owner hath not kept it in; he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his own.
Querverweise zu 2. Mose 21,2 2Mo 21,2
but every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee:
then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.
If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be bloodguiltiness for him; he shall make restitution: if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they shall be your possession.
And God give thee of the dew of heaven,And of the fatness of the earth,And plenty of grain and new wine:
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty:
thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress; as Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day.
And if thy brother be waxed poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bond-servant.
As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee:
then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou lettest him go free from thee; for to the double of the hire of a hireling hath he served thee six years: and Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all that thou doest.
And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou shalt have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear Jehovah: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen.
The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, that is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondmen of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
And all the princes and all the people obeyed, that had entered into the covenant, that every one should let his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:
but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of {Hebrew: bondmen.}bondage, saying,
At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that {Or, hath sold himself}hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:
but ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and ye brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: ye have not hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim unto you a liberty, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be {Or, a terror unto}tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth.
Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
For there were that said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many: let us get grain, that we may eat and live.
Some also there were that said, We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses: let us get grain, because of the dearth.
There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute upon our fields and our vineyards.
Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already: neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards.
And I said unto them, We after our ability have {Hebrew: bought.}redeemed our brethren the Jews, that were sold unto the nations; and would ye even sell your brethren, and should they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found never a word.
But forasmuch as he had not wherewith to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.