Exodus 20 was exciting. Lots of good stuff in there. This chapter, and the next two after it, are going to feel a little dry in comparison. It’s stuff that is relevant to an agrarian society familiar with the institution of slavery that may not have direct application for believers today. After reading the text, I will go ahead and share some additional comments about the 10 commandments and point out some things about God’s law in a general sort of way; we don’t have to talk about oxen goring people nor digging a pit that an animal falls into.

Exodus 21

“Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them.

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

3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4 If his master has given him a wife, and she has born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

5 And if the servant plainly says ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free;’

6 Then his master shall bring him to the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or to the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him forever.

7 If a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

8 If she does not please her master, who has chosen her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed: he does not have the right to sell her to a foreign nation because he has broken faith with her. 

9 And if he has chosen her for his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

10 If he takes another wife for himself, her food, raiment, and duty of marriage, he shall not diminish.

11 And if he does not do these three for her, then shall she go out free without money.

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

13 If he did not lie not in wait, but God caused him to fall into his hand, then I will appoint a place where he shall flee.

14 But if a man attacks his neighbor intentionally, to slay him with anger; you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

15 He that strikes his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

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

17 He that curses his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

18 If men have a quarrel, and one strikes another with a stone, or with his fist, and he does not die, but is confined to his bed:

19 If he rises again, and walks around leaning on his staff, then he that struck him shall go free. He shall pay for the loss of his time, and provide for his recovery.

20 And if a man strikes his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he dies by his hand; he shall be surely punished.

21 However, if he recovers after a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

22 If men fight each other and hurt a pregnant woman, so that her child is born prematurely, but there is no injury, he shall be fined as the woman’s husband demands; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

23 And if there is an injury, then you shall give life for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

26 If a man strikes the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, and destroys it; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.

27 And if he knocks out his manservant’s tooth, or his maid servant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.

28 If an ox gores a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox is innocent. 

29 But if the ox were known to gore in the past, and it has been testified to his owner, and he has not kept him in, but he has killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner shall also be put to death.

30 If a ransom is imposed on him, then he can pay a redemption price for his life, whatever is demanded of him.

31 If it gores a son or a daughter, it shall be judged by the same law.

32 If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

33 And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in;

34 The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money to the owner of them; and the dead animal shall be his.

35 And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.

36 Or if it is known that the ox has gored in the past, and his owner had not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.”

Exodus 21 in ESV, HCSB, NASB and NIV via Bible Gateway.