The Treatment of Servants

211 Now these are the laws which you are to put before them. 2 If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment. 3 If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the property of the master, and the servant is to go away by himself. 5 But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free: 6 Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever. 7 And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do. 8 If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free; her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to a strange land, because he has been false to her. 9 And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for her as if she was his daughter. 10 And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing and her married rights are not to be less. 11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she has the right to go free without payment.

Laws concerning Acts of Violence

12 He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death. 13 But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight. 14 But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death. 15 Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death. 16 Any man who gets another into his power in order to get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in the act. 17 Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to death. 18 If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone, or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him keep in bed; 19 If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick, the other will be let off; only he will have to give him payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for till he is well. 20 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo punishment. 21 But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the servant is his property.

22 If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges. 23 But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life, 24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.

Laws concerning Responsibility of Owners

26 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant a blow in the eye, causing its destruction, he is to let him go free on account of the damage to his eye. 27 Or if the loss of a tooth is caused by his blow, he will let him go free on account of his tooth. 28 If an ox comes to be the cause of death to a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned, and its flesh may not be used for food; but the owner will not be judged responsible. 29 But if the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and the owner has had word of it and has not kept it under control, so that it has been the cause of the death of a man or woman, not only is the ox to be stoned, but its owner is to be put to death. 30 If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of whatever price is fixed. 31 If the death of a son or of a daughter has been caused, the punishment is to be in agreement with this rule. 32 If the death of a man-servant or of a woman-servant is caused by the ox, the owner is to give their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is to be stoned. 33 If a man makes a hole in the earth without covering it up, and an ox or an ass dropping into it comes to its death; 34 The owner of the hole is responsible; he will have to make payment to their owner, but the dead beast will be his. 35 And if one man's ox does damage to another man's ox, causing its death, then the living ox is to be exchanged for money, and division made of the price of it, and of the price of the dead one. 36 But if it is common knowledge that the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and its owner has not kept it under control, he will have to give ox for ox; and the dead beast will be his.

The Call of Moses

31 Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up. 3 And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up, 4 And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. 6 And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God.

7 And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; 8 And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 9 For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them. 10 Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God on this mountain. 13 And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to say to them? 14 And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

16 Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel, and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is done to you in Egypt; 17 And I have said, I will take you up out of the sorrows of Egypt into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, into a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God. 19 And I am certain that the king of Egypt will not let you go without being forced. 20 But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that when you go out you will go out with your hands full. 22 For every woman will get from her neighbour and from the woman living in her house, ornaments of silver and gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and your daughters; you will take the best of their goods from the Egyptians.