Exodus 21:26-27

The context

These are case laws in the Book of the Covenant, the collection that follows the Decalogue at Sinai. The surrounding paragraphs deal with injuries, goring animals, and damages, each stated as a case with a ruling attached. This pair addresses a master who strikes a slave and destroys an eye or a tooth, and it gives the outcome.

What it establishes

Israelite law placed a limit on a master's power and gave the injured slave a right to release. The penalty falls on the owner's economic interest, which is the lever the statute uses instead of a bodily penalty.

What it does not establish

It regulates slavery rather than abolishing it. The institution is assumed throughout the code; this statute restricts its worst exercise and grants a remedy, and it should not be read as an endorsement of the practice.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• The Bible sanctions slavery, so a Christian who owns no slaves is out of integrity with his never-changing God.

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.