Exodus 21:1

Contemporary English Version

The Lord gave Moses the following laws for his people:

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:

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.

Berean Standard Bible
These are the ordinances that you are to 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

¹ The Lord gave Moses the following laws for his people: ² If you buy a Hebrew slave, he must remain your slave for six years. But in the seventh year you must set him free, without cost to him. ³ If he was single at the time you bought him, he alone must be set free. But if he was married at the time, both he and his wife must be given their freedom. ⁴ If you give him a wife, and they have children, only the man himself must be set free; his wife and children remain the property of his owner. ⁵ But suppose the slave loves his wife and children so much that he won't leave without them. ⁶ Then he must stand beside either the door or the doorpost at the place of worship, while his owner punches a small hole through one of his ears with a sharp metal rod. This makes him a slave for life. ⁷ A young woman who was sold by her father doesn't gain her freedom in the same way that a man does. ⁸ If she doesn't please the man who bought her to be his wife, he must let her be bought back. He cannot sell her to foreigners; this would break the contract he made with her. ⁹ If he selects her as a wife for his son, he must treat her as his own daughter. ¹⁰ If the man later marries another woman, he must continue to provide food and clothing for the one he bought and to treat her as a 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
I will bless her, and you will have a son by her. She will become the mother of nations, and some of her descendants will even be kings.

Genesis 17:19
But God answered: No! You and Sarah will have a son. His name will be Isaac, and I will make an everlasting promise to him and his descendants.

Genesis 17:21
But your son Isaac will be born about this time next year, and the promise I am making to you and your family will be for him and his descendants forever.

Genesis 18:10
One of the guests was the Lord , and he said, "I'll come back about this time next year, and when I do, Sarah will already have a son." Sarah was behind Abraham, listening at the entrance to the tent.

Genesis 18:14
I am the Lord ! There is nothing too difficult for me. I'll come back next year at the time I promised, and Sarah will already have a son."

Genesis 21:17
When God heard the boy crying, the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven and said, "Hagar, why are you worried? Don't be afraid. I have heard your son crying.

Genesis 21:20
God blessed Ishmael, and as the boy grew older, he became an expert with his bow and arrows. He lived in the Paran Desert, and his mother chose an Egyptian woman for him to marry.

Genesis 50:24
Before Joseph died, he told his brothers, "I won't live much longer. But God will take care of you and lead you out of Egypt to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus 3:16
Call together the leaders of Israel and tell them that the God who was worshiped by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has appeared to you. Tell them I have seen how terribly they are being treated in Egypt,

Exodus 4:31
and everyone believed. They bowed down and worshiped the Lord because they knew that he had seen their suffering and was going to help them.

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.