Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, July 19th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Exodus 21:1

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Servant;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Exodus;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ethics;   Justice;   Slave;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Work;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Judgments of God;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Economic Life;   Exodus, Book of;   Hammurabi;   Pentateuch;   Slave/servant;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Canon of the Old Testament;   Covenant, Book of the;   Ethics;   Exodus;   Hexateuch;   Law;   Leviticus;   Priests and Levites;   Sabbatical Year;   Sin;   Slave, Slavery;   Stranger;   Ten Commandments;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Law of Moses;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Exodus, the Book of;   Pentateuch;   Sabbatical Year;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ceremonies and the Ceremonial Law;   Gentile;   Sidra;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
King James Version
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Lexham English Bible
"And these are the regulations that you will set before them.
New Century Version
Then God said to Moses, "These are the laws for living that you will give to the Israelites:
New English Translation
"These are the decisions that you will set before them:
Amplified Bible
"Now these are the ordinances (laws) which you shall set before the Israelites:
New American Standard Bible
"Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:
Geneva Bible (1587)
Now these are the lawes, which thou shalt set before them:
Legacy Standard Bible
"Now these are the judgments which you are to set before them:
Contemporary English Version
The Lord gave Moses the following laws for his people:
Complete Jewish Bible
"These are the rulings you are to present to them:
Darby Translation
And these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Easy-to-Read Version
Then God said to Moses, "These are the other laws that you will give to the people:
English Standard Version
"Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.
George Lamsa Translation
NOW these are the judgments which you shall set before them.
Good News Translation
"Give the Israelites the following laws:
Christian Standard Bible®
“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:
Literal Translation
And these are the judgments which you shall put before them:
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
These are the lawes, that thou shalt laye before them.
American Standard Version
Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.
Bible in Basic English
Now these are the laws which you are to put before them.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
These art the lawes whiche thou shalt set before them.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.
King James Version (1611)
Now these are the Iudgements which thou shalt set before them.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.
English Revised Version
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
These ben the domes, whiche thou schalt sette forth to hem.
Young's Literal Translation
`And these [are] the judgments which thou dost set before them:
Update Bible Version
Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
Webster's Bible Translation
Now these [are] the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
World English Bible
"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
New King James Version
Deuteronomy 15:12-18">[xr] "Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them:
New Living Translation
"These are the regulations you must present to Israel.
New Life Bible
"Now these are the Laws which you are to give them.
New Revised Standard
These are the ordinances that you shall set before them:
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, these are the regulations which thou shalt put before them.
Douay-Rheims Bible
These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Revised Standard Version
"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
THE MESSAGE
"These are the laws that you are to place before them:
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:

Contextual Overview

1These 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the judgments: Leviticus 18:5, Leviticus 18:26, Leviticus 19:37, Leviticus 20:22, Numbers 35:24, Numbers 36:13, Deuteronomy 5:1, Deuteronomy 5:31, Deuteronomy 6:20, 1 Kings 6:12, 2 Chronicles 19:10, Nehemiah 9:13, Nehemiah 9:14, Nehemiah 10:29, Psalms 147:19, Ezekiel 20:11, Ezekiel 20:25, Malachi 4:4

which: Exodus 19:7, Exodus 24:3, Exodus 24:4, Deuteronomy 4:5, Deuteronomy 4:8, Deuteronomy 4:14, Deuteronomy 4:45, Deuteronomy 6:20, Matthew 28:20, 1 Thessalonians 4:1

Reciprocal: Exodus 34:32 - he gave Ezra 7:26 - whether it be Nehemiah 5:5 - we Psalms 19:9 - judgments Jeremiah 34:14 - At the Acts 7:38 - who

Cross-References

Genesis 17:16
And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her."
Genesis 17:19
But God replied, "Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
Genesis 17:21
But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year."
Genesis 18:10
Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!" Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.
Genesis 18:14
Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you-in about a year-and Sarah will have a son."
Genesis 21:17
Then God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, "What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies.
Genesis 21:20
And God was with the boy, and he grew up and settled in the wilderness and became a great archer.
Genesis 50:24
Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
Exodus 3:16
Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
Exodus 4:31
and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now these are the judgments,.... The judicial laws respecting the civil state of the people of Israel, so called because they are founded on justice and equity, and are according to the judgment of God, whose judgment is according to truth; and because they are such by which the commonwealth of Israel was to be judged or governed, and were to be the rule of their conduct to one another, and a rule of judgment to their judges in the execution of judgment and justice among them:

which thou shall set before them; besides the ten commands before delivered. They were spoken by God himself in the hearing of the people; these were delivered to Moses after he went up to the mount again, at the request of the people, to be their mediator, to be by him set before them as the rule of their behaviour, and to enjoin them the observance of them; in order to which he was not only to rehearse them, but to write them out, and set them in a plain and easy light before them: and though they did not hear these with their own ears from God himself, as the ten commands; yet, as they had the utmost reason to believe they came from him, and it was at their own request that he, and not God, might speak unto them what was further to be said, with a promise they would obey it, as if they had immediately heard it from him; it became them to receive these laws as of God, and yield a cheerful obedience to them; nor do we find they ever questioned the authority of them; and as their government was a Theocracy, and God was more immediately their King than he was of any other people, it was but right, and what might be expected, that they should have their civil laws from him, and which was their privilege, and gave them the preference to all other nations, Deuteronomy 4:5.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Judgments - i. e. decisions of the law.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER XXI

Laws concerning servants. They shall serve for only seven

years, 1, 2.

If a servant brought a wife to servitude with him, both should go

out free on the seventh year, 3.

If his master had given him a wife, and she bore him children, he

might go out free an the seventh year, but his wife and children

must remain, as the property of the master, 4.

If, through love to his master, wife, and children, he did not

choose to avail himself of the privilege granted by the law, of

going out free on the seventh year, his ear was to be bored to the

door post with an awl, as an emblem of his being attached to the

family for ever, 5, 6.

Laws concerning maid-servants, betrothed to their masters or to

the sons of their masters, 7-11.

Laws concerning battery and murder, 12-15.

Concerning men-stealing, 16.

Concerning him that curses his parents, 17.

Of strife between man and man, 18, 19;

between a master and his servants, 20, 21.

Of injuries done to women in pregnancy, 22.

The LEX TALIONIS, or law of like, 23-25.

for injuries done to servants, by which they gain the right of

freedom, 26, 27.

Laws concerning the ox which has gored men, 28-32.

Of the pit left uncovered, into which a man or a beast has

fallen, 33, 34.

Laws concerning the ox that kills another, 35, 36.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXI

Verse Exodus 21:1. Now these are the judgments — There is so much good sense, feeling, humanity, equity, and justice in the following laws, that they cannot but be admired by every intelligent reader; and they are so very plain as to require very little comment. The laws in this chapter are termed political, those in the succeeding chapter judicial, laws; and are supposed to have been delivered to Moses alone, in consequence of the request of the people, Exodus 20:19, that God should communicate his will to Moses, and that Moses should, as mediator, convey it to them.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile