Hebrew Servants

¹“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:

²If 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.

³If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him.

⁴If 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.

⁵But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’

⁶then 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.

⁷And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do.

⁸If 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.

⁹And if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her as with a daughter.

¹⁰If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of his first wife.

¹¹If, however, he does not provide her with these three things, she is free to go without monetary payment.

Personal Injury Laws

¹²Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.

¹³If, 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.

¹⁴But 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.

¹⁵Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁶Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.

¹⁷Anyone who curseshis father or mother must surely be put to death.

¹⁸If men are quarreling and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed,

¹⁹then 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.

²⁰If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.

²¹However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.

²²If 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.

²³But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—

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

²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

²⁶If a man strikes and blinds the eye of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.

²⁷And if he knocks out the tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

²⁸If an oxgores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible.

²⁹But 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.

³⁰If payment is demanded of him instead, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.

³¹If the ox gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.

³²If the ox gores a manservant or maidservant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silverto the master of that servant, and the ox must be stoned.

³³If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

³⁴the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his.

³⁵If 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.

³⁶But 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.

Additional Blessings of Obedience

¹“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.

²You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.

³If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,

⁴I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

⁵Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

⁶And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land.

⁷You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.

⁸Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

⁹I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you.

¹⁰You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new.

¹¹And I will make My dwelling placeamong you, and My soul will not despiseyou.

¹²I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

¹³I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.

Punishments for Disobedience

¹⁴If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

¹⁵and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

¹⁶then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

¹⁷And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

¹⁸And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

¹⁹I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

²⁰and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

²¹If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

²²I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

²³And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

²⁴then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

²⁵And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

²⁶When I cut off your supplyof bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

²⁷But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

²⁸then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

²⁹You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

³⁰I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

³¹I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.

³²And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.

³³But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

³⁴Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

³⁵As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it.

³⁶As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

³⁷They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies.

³⁸You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.

³⁹Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

God Remembers Those Who Repent

⁴⁰But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

⁴¹and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

⁴²then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

⁴³For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.

⁴⁴Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

⁴⁵But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

⁴⁶These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Zelophehad’s Daughters Marry

¹Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them,

²saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

³But if they marry any of the men from the other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the portion of our fathers and added to the tribe into which they marry. So our allotted inheritance would be taken away.

⁴And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵So at the word of the LORD, Moses commanded the Israelites: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly.

⁶This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry within a clan of the tribe of their father.

⁷No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

⁸Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.

⁹No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”

¹⁰So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹¹Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side.

¹²They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father’s clan.

¹³These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

I Will Sing of His Love Forever

¹I will sing of the loving devotion of the LORD forever;with my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations.

²For I have said, “Loving devotion is built up forever;in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.”

³You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one,I have sworn to David My servant:

⁴‘I will establish your offspring foreverand build up your throne for all generations.’”Selah

⁵The heavens praise Your wonders, O LORD—Your faithfulness as well—in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the skies can compare with the LORD?Who among the heavenly beingsis like the LORD?

⁷In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared,and awesome above all who surround Him.

⁸O LORD God of Hosts, who is like You?O mighty LORD, Your faithfulness surrounds You.

⁹You rule the raging sea;when its waves mount up, You still them.

¹⁰You crushed Rahab like a carcass;You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

¹¹The heavens are Yours, and also the earth.The earth and its fullness You founded.

¹²North and south You created;Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.

¹³Mighty is Your arm; strong is Your hand.Your right hand is exalted.

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;loving devotion and faithfulness go before You.

¹⁵Blessed are those who know the joyful sound,who walk, O LORD, in the light of Your presence.

¹⁶They rejoice in Your name all day long,and in Your righteousness they exult.

¹⁷For You are the glory of their strength,and by Your favor our horn is exalted.

¹⁸Surely our shield belongs to the LORD,and our king to the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁹You once spoke in a vision;to Your godly ones You said,“I have bestowed help on a warrior;I have exalted one chosen from the people.

²⁰I have found My servant David;with My sacred oil I have anointed him.

²¹My hand will sustain him;surely My arm will strengthen him.

²²No enemy will exact tribute;no wicked man will oppress him.

²³I will crush his foes before himand strike down those who hate him.

²⁴My faithfulness and loving devotion will be with him,and through My name his horn will be exalted.

²⁵I will set his hand over the sea,and his right hand upon the rivers.

²⁶He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father,my God, the Rock of my salvation.’

²⁷I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn,the highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him,and My covenant with him will stand fast.

²⁹I will establish his line forever,his throne as long as the heavens endure.

³⁰If his sons forsake My lawand do not walk in My judgments,

³¹if they violate My statutesand fail to keep My commandments,

³²I will attend to their transgression with the rod,and to their iniquity with stripes.

³³But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him,nor ever betray My faithfulness.

³⁴I will not violate My covenantor alter the utterance of My lips.

³⁵Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness—I will not lie to David—

³⁶his offspring shall endure forever,and his throne before Me like the sun,

³⁷like the moon, established forever,a faithful witness in the sky.”Selah

³⁸Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him;You are enraged by Your anointed one.

³⁹You have renounced the covenant with Your servantand sullied his crown in the dust.

⁴⁰You have broken down all his walls;You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.

⁴¹All who pass by plunder him;he has become a reproach to his neighbors.

⁴²You have exalted the right hand of his foes;You have made all his enemies rejoice.

⁴³You have bent the edge of his swordand have not sustained him in battle.

⁴⁴You have ended his splendorand cast his throne to the ground.

⁴⁵You have cut short the days of his youth;You have covered him with shame.Selah

⁴⁶How long, O LORD?Will You hide Yourself forever?Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?

⁴⁷Remember the briefness of my lifespan!For what futility You have created all men!

⁴⁸What man can live and never see death?Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?Selah

⁴⁹Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old,which You faithfully swore to David?

⁵⁰Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants,which I bear in my heart from so many people—

⁵¹how Your enemies have taunted, O LORD,and have mocked every step of Your anointed one!

⁵²Blessed be the LORD forever!Amen and amen.