Israelite rules

Throughout the book of Exodus, God gave various rules for the Israelites to follow.
These rules give an idea of the kind of life that they led back in those days.

Chapter 12:

• The Israelites shall hold a holiday to commemorate the passover, the day when God brought them out of slavery in Egypt. "This day shall be a memorial day for you. You shall keep it as a feast to God, and shall observe it forever. For seven days, you shall eat no leavened bread. In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day to the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat no leavened bread. During these days, no work shall be done. And on the first and seventh days, you shall hold holy assemblies." (12:14-20; and also 13:6-7) (Today this holiday has become a Jewish holiday called Passover.)

Chapter 13:

• "When God brings you to the land of Canaan, all of your first-borns belong to God. All of the male firstlings of your cattle you shall sacrifice to God." (13:11-16)

Chapter 20: The Ten Commandments

1. "You shall have no other gods before me." (20:3)
2. "You shall not make any image of anything and worship it. I will deal with those who hate me, but I will show love to those who love me and keep my commandments." (20:4-6)
3. "You shall not take the name of God in vain." (20:7)
4. "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days, you shall work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to God. You shall do no work that day." (20:8-11)
5. "Honor your father and mother." (20:12)
6. "You shall not kill." (20:13)
7. "You shall not commit adultery." (20:14)
8. "You shall not steal." (20:15)
9. "You shall not bear false witness." (20:16)
10. "You shall not covet anything that is somebody else's." (20:17)

Chapter 21:

• Rules about slavery:
• "When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years. In the seventh year, he shall go free for nothing."
• "If the slave comes in single, he shall go out single. If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him."
• "If the master gives a wife to the slave, and the wife bears him children, then the wife and children shall be the master's. When the slave is freed, he shall go out alone. If the slave refuses, then the master shall bore the slave's ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for life." (21:1-6)
• Rules about female slaves:
• "If she doesn't please her master, he can't sell her to a foreign people." (21:8)
• "If she marries her master's son, the master will deal with her as a daughter." (21:9)
• "If the master marries the slave, and then he takes another wife, he shall not diminish the slaves' martial rights." (21:10)
• "If the master breaks any of the three above rules, the slave shall be freed." (21:11)
• Punishments for hurting people:
• "Whomever strikes a man so that he dies, then his punishment depends on whether or not it was intentional. If it was unintentional, I will appoint a place where he may flee. If it was intentional, that man shall die." (21:12-14)
• "Whomever strikes his own father or mother shall be put to death." (21:15)
• "Whomever steals a slave shall be put to death." (21:16)
• "Whomever curses his own father or mother shall be put to death." (21:17)
• "When a man strikes another man, if the struck man has to stay in bed for a while, then the striker shall pay the strikee for the loss of his time." (21:18-19)
• "When a master strikes his slave, if the slave dies, the master shall be punished. But if the slave does not die, then the master shall not be punished, because the slave is his money." (21:20-21)
• "If a man hurts a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, but there is no further harm, then the striker shall be fined. The woman's husband shall determine the fine. If the pregnant woman was further harmed, then the striker shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc." (21:22-25)
• "If a master strikes his slave so that the slave loses an eye or a tooth, the slave shall be freed." (21:26-27)
• "When an ox kills someone, it shall be stoned. If this is not the first time the ox has done this, and the owner was warned, and did not heed the warning, then the owner shall also be put to death. If he has a lot of money, then he can give money to stay alive." (21:28-31)
• "If an ox kills a slave, the ox's owner shall thirty shekels of silver to the slave's master, and the ox shall be stoned." (21:32)
• "When a man leaves a pit open, and an owned animal falls into it, the owner of the pit shall give money to the owner of the animal." (21:33-34)
• "When one man's ox kills another man's ox, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it. If this is not the first time the ox has done this, and the owner was warned, and did not heed the warning, then the live ox's owner shall give an ox to the dead ox's owner." (21:35-36)

Chapter 22:

• Punishments for property damages:
• "If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, then he shall pay double. If he can't pay his fine, then he shall be sold into slavery for his theft." (22:1)
• "If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, then there shall be no blood shed for him. If he lives, then he must make full restitution for his crime. If he can't pay, then he shall be sold into slavery for his theft." (22:2-3)
• "If a man lets one of his animals loose, and the animal eats from another man's field or vineyard, then the animal's owner shall pay the field's owner from the best of his own field or vineyard." (22:5)
• "If a fire breaks out, and another man's field or standing grain is burned up, then the person who started the fire shall pay the field's owner." (22:6)
• "If a man gives his neighbor goods to keep, and the goods are stolen, if the thief is found, then the thief shall pay double. If the thief is not found, then the man who delivered the goods shall be brought to God (or the judges) to see if he had stolen the goods." (22:7-8)
• "If two men insist that something belongs to him, then the matter shall be brought to the judges. The judges shall decide whom the thing belongs to, and the condemned man shall pay double to his neighbor." (22:9)
• "If a man gives his neighbor an animal to keep, and then animal dies, is hurt, or runs away, then there shall be an oath between them to sees whether the man who gave the animal stole it. The neighbor shall accept the oath, and the man who gave the animal won't make restitution. If the animal was torn by beasts, then he man who gave the animal won't make restitution. But if the animal was stolen, then the man who gave the animal shall make restitution." (22:10-13)
• "If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it dies, then if the owner was with it, the borrower shall make restitution. But if the owner was with it, the borrower shall not make restitution; if it was hired, it came for its hire." (22:14-15)
• "If a man has sex with an unmarried woman, he must marry her. If her father objects to having the man marry his daughter, then the man must pay money equivalent to the marriage." (22:16-17)
• "You shall not permit a witch to live." (22:18)
• "Whomever has sex with an animal shall be put to death." (22:19)
• "Whomever makes a sacrifice to any other god shall be put to death." (22:20)
• "You shall not wrong a stranger because you were once strangers in Egypt." (22:21)
• "Whomever harms a widow or an orphan, I will kill." (22:22-24)
• "If you lend money to any of my people, you shall not exact interest." (22:25)
• "If you take a garment as a pledge, you shall give it back to him before the end of the day." (22:26-27)
• "You shall not revile God." (22:28)
• "You shall not curse a ruler of your people." (22:28)
• "You shall not delay to offer the firsts of your harvest to God." (22:29)
• "The first-born of your sons you shall give to God, likewise with your animals. They shall be sacrificed when they are eight days old." (22:29-30)
• "You shall not eat any flesh that was torn by beasts in the woods. You shall cast it to the dogs." (22:31)

Chapter 23:

• "You shall not lie." (23:1)
• "If you are a witness, you shall not lie." (23:1-2)
• "You shall not be partial to a poor man in his suit." (23:3)
• "If you see your enemy's animal going astray, you shall bring it back to him." (23:4)
• "If you see your enemy's animal with a burden, you shall help it lift it." (23:4)
• "In a suit, you shall not pervert justice." (23:6)
• "In a suit, you shall stay away from false charges, and not harm the righteous. I will not acquit the wicked." (23:7)
• "In a suit, you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of what is right." (23:8)
• "You shall not hurt a stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt." (23:9)
• A time schedule:
• "For six years, you shall sow your land, and gather in its yield. But in the seventh year, you shall let it rest. You shall let the poor and the wild beasts eat off of it. You shall do the same thing with your vineyard and your olive orchard." (23:10-11)
• "Six days, you shall do your work. But on the seventh day, you shall rest, and you shall let your animals rest." (23:12)
• "Three times in the year, you shall keep a feast to me (23:14):
• "You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread, from earlier. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib." (23:15)
• "You shall keep the feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field." (23:16)
• "You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field in the fruit of your labor." (23:16)
• "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread." (23:18)
• "You shall not let the fat of my feast remain until morning." (23:18)
• "The first fruits of your ground, you bring into the house of God." (23:19)
• "You shall not boil an animal in its mother's milk." (23:19)

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