Exodus 21:12-27
The covenant community must treat human life and bodily injury as matters before God, answering violence with truthful judgment, proportionate justice, and protection for the vulnerable.
12 “One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
13 but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen; then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
14 If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
15 “Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
16 “Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17 “Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18 “If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn’t die, but is confined to bed;
19 if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.
20 “If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, the man shall surely be punished.
21 Notwithstanding, if his servant gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for the servant is his property.
22 “If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow.
23 But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
26 “If a man strikes his servant’s eye, or his maid’s eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
27 If he strikes out his male servant’s tooth, or his female servant’s tooth, he shall let the servant go free for his tooth’s sake.
The covenant community must treat human life and bodily injury as matters before God, answering violence with truthful judgment, proportionate justice, and protection for the vulnerable.
To establish covenant case law that protects human life, distinguishes premeditated murder from accidental killing, restrains violent retaliation through measured justice, and gives legal recognition to bodily harm done even to socially vulnerable servants.
Exodus 21:12-27 stands inside the Book of the Covenant that follows the Ten Words. After laws concerning Hebrew servants in Exodus 21:1-11, the text turns to cases involving death, bodily injury, family rebellion, kidnapping, pregnancy-related harm, and injury to slaves. The passage shows how the covenant community must translate the command not to murder and the command to honor father and mother into concrete judicial practice.
Exodus 21 begins the Book of the Covenant after the Ten Words and altar instructions. The laws address real disputes in ancient Israel's household and village life, moving from servant regulations to cases involving murder, assault, injury, and compensation. Their form is case-law instruction, applying covenant justice to concrete scenarios rather than giving abstract moral essays.
Case Laws for Covenant Justice, Human Dignity, and Restitution
The LORD gives Israel concrete case laws so that redeemed life will be marked by justice, protection of life, restraint of power, restitution for harm, and accountability for negligence.