Sinai & The Law

And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Thus dost thou say unto the sons of Israel: Ye--ye have seen that from the heavens I have spoken with you;

ye do not make with Me gods of silver, even gods of gold ye do not make to yourselves.

`An altar of earth thou dost make for Me, and thou hast sacrificed on it thy burnt-offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy flock and thy herd; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered I come in unto thee, and have blessed thee.

`And if an altar of stones thou dost make to Me, thou dost not build them of hewn work; when thy tool thou hast waved over it, then thou dost pollute it;

neither dost thou go up by steps on Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not revealed upon it.

`And these are the judgments which thou dost set before them:

`When thou buyest a Hebrew servant--six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought;

if by himself he cometh in, by himself he goeth out; if he is owner of a wife, then his wife hath gone out with him;

if his lord give to him a wife, and she hath borne to him sons or daughters--the wife and her children are her lord's, and he goeth out by himself.

`And if the servant really say: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons--I do not go out free;

then hath his lord brought him nigh unto God, and hath brought him nigh unto the door, or unto the side-post, and his lord hath bored his ear with an awl, and he hath served him--to the age.

`And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants;

if evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he hath not betrothed her, then he hath let her be ransomed; to a strange people he hath not power to sell her, in his dealing treacherously with her.

`And if to his son he betroth her, according to the right of daughters he doth to her.

`If another woman he take for him, her food, her covering, and her habitation, he doth not withdraw;

and if these three he do not to her, then she hath gone out for nought, without money.

`He who smiteth a man so that he hath died, is certainly put to death;

as to him who hath not laid wait, and God hath brought to his hand, I have even set for thee a place whither he doth flee.

`And when a man doth presume against his neighbour to slay him with subtilty, from Mine altar thou dost take him to die.

`And he who smiteth his father or his mother is certainly put to death.

`And he who stealeth a man, and hath sold him, and he hath been found in his hand, is certainly put to death.

`And he who is reviling his father or his mother is certainly put to death.

`And when men contend, and a man hath smitten his neighbour with a stone, or with the fist, and he die not, but hath fallen on the bed;

if he rise, and hath gone up and down without on his staff, then hath the smiter been acquitted; only his cessation he giveth, and he is thoroughly healed.

`And when a man smiteth his man-servant or his handmaid, with a rod, and he hath died under his hand--he is certainly avenged;