UNROLL
The wooden door and doorpost of a small stone-and-mud-brick farmhouse at first light, a wooden ox yoke leaning against the wall, terraced fields beyond.

The Book of

Exodus 21

God’s first ordinances for a people just freed from slavery begin with servants: how long they serve, how they go free, and who protects them.

36 verses≈ 7 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–6Slaves in EgyptOppression and a deliverer
  2. 7–13The plaguesThe LORD against Pharaoh
  3. 14–18Through the seaRescued and led
  4. 19–24At SinaiThe covenant and the lawChapter 21
  5. 25–31A place to dwellThe tabernacle planned
  6. 32–40Broken and renewedThe calf, mercy, the glory

Hebrew Servants

“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:

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At dawn a man, his wife and two children walk away from a farmstead gate along a hill-country track with a laden donkey, seen from behind, while the master stands at the gate.

If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything. If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’ then his master is to bring him before the judges. And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

0:37

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Close on the heavy wooden doorpost of a farmhouse door in morning light, a small bronze awl resting on the stone threshold beneath it.

But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.

Exodus 21:2

The law

A daughter sold as a servant

  1. She is not released like the men

    And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do.

  2. Her rights

    She may be redeemed, never sold abroad

    If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who had designated her for himself, he must allow her to be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, since he has broken faith with her.

  3. Chosen for a son: treated as a daughter

    And if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her as with a daughter.

  4. Food, clothing, marriage, or freedom

    If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of his first wife. If, however, he does not provide her with these three things, she is free to go without monetary payment.

Three kinds of law

The Ten WordsGod’s moral will(ch. 20)The ordinancesIsrael’s civil law(21–23)Altar andpriestsworship thatpointed aheadFulfilled inChristnot to abolish(Matthew 5:17)Love fulfillsthe lawGod’s will today(Romans 13:10)

Whiteboard

“These are the ordinances”: after the Ten Commandments come laws for Israel’s daily life as a nation under God. Christians have long seen three kinds of law in Exodus: the moral law at its heart, the civil law for Israel’s courts, and the worship of altar, priests and feasts that pointed ahead to Christ. Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Its moral core still shows God’s will, summed up in love (Romans 13:8–10).

Reflect

The ones with least power

The first ordinances God gave after the Ten Commandments were about servants: a man working off a debt, a daughter sold by a poor father. God set limits on their masters and wrote their rights into Israel’s law. He had heard His own people groan as slaves in Egypt. Who around you has the least power: at work, at home, in your church? Write down one name, and one way you could protect or honor that person this week.

Personal Injury Laws

The law

Life for life

  1. Capital

    Whoever kills a man

    Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.

  2. Refuge

    Not planned: a place to flee

    If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

  3. Capital

    Scheming murder: no refuge at the altar

    But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.

  4. Striking a parent

    Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

  5. Kidnapping

    Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.

  6. Cursing a parent

    Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.

A figure seen from behind hurrying up a rocky path at dusk toward a small hill town with one lit gateway.

The law

Injuries

  1. Compensation

    A fight that lays a man up

    If men are quarreling and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed, then the one who struck him shall go unpunished, as long as the other can get up and walk around outside with his staff. Nevertheless, he must compensate the man for his lost work and see that he is completely healed.

  2. Servants

    A servant beaten with a rod

    If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished. However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.

If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.

But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life— eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

Exodus 21:23–25

If a man strikes and blinds the eye of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

Pray

Justice and mercy

God’s law put a limit on punishment, “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” and no more. It set a struck servant free and made the careless pay. Pray for fair courts and honest judges where you live. Pray for people who are not free today, the trafficked and the exploited, that God would rescue them. And ask Him to keep you from repaying wrong with wrong.

A great long-horned ox tethered by a stout rope to a wooden post in a stone-walled farmyard, head lowered, the farmer’s hand on the rope.

The law

If an ox gores

  1. A life taken

    An ox that kills is stoned

    If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten.

  2. Its owner is not to blame

    But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible.

  3. A known gorer: the owner answers

    But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death. If payment is demanded of him instead, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.

  4. A son or daughter: the same rule

    If the ox gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.

  5. A servant: thirty shekels

    If the ox gores a manservant or maidservant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of that servant, and the ox must be stoned.

  6. Restitution

    An open pit

    If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his.

  7. Ox against ox

    If a man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they must sell the live one and divide the proceeds; they also must divide the dead animal.

  8. A known gorer: ox for ox

    But if it was known that the ox had a habit of goring, yet its owner failed to restrain it, he shall pay full compensation, ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.

thirty shekels of silver

Exodus 21:32

The open mouth of a rock-cut cistern in a field at evening, its flat covering stone pushed aside, a gray donkey grazing a few steps away.

Question

Quick question

God’s law protected even a servant’s body from his master’s blows.

If a master knocked out his servant’s eye or tooth, what did the law require?

You’ve experienced

Exodus 21

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A verse to carry with you

But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.

Exodus 21:2

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