Study Desk

and be ready for me on the third day. On the third day, the Lord will come down to Mount Sinai. And all the people will see me.

So Moses climbed down the mountain and went to the people. He got them ready for the special meeting and they washed their clothes.

Then Moses said to the people, "Be ready for the meeting with God in three days. Until that time do not have sexual relations."

Also tell the priests who come near the Lord that they must prepare themselves for this special meeting. If they don't, I, the Lord , will punish them."

But I will be very kind to people who love me and obey my commands. I will be kind to their families for thousands of generations.

"Make a special altar for me. You should use dirt to make this altar. Offer sheep and cattle as burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on this altar. Do this in every place where I tell you to remember me. Then I will come and bless you.

"If you buy a Hebrew slave, then that slave will serve for only six years. After six years, he will be free, and he will have to pay nothing.

If this happens, the master will bring the slave before God. The master will take the slave to a door or the wooden frame around the door and pierce the slave's ear using a sharp tool to show that the slave will serve that master for all his life.

"A man might decide to sell his daughter as a slave. If this happens, the rules for making her free are not the same as the rules for making the men slaves free.

If the master who chose her for himself is not pleased with her, then he can sell the woman back to her father. If the master broke his promise to marry her, he loses the right to sell her to other people.

The man must do these three things for her. If he does not, the woman is made free, and it will cost her nothing. She owes no money to the man.

But if an accident happens, and a person kills someone without planning it, then God allowed that thing to happen. I will choose some special places where people can run to for safety. So that person can run to one of those places.

"Whoever steals someone to sell them as a slave or to keep them for their own slave must be killed.

If the man was hurt and must stay in bed for some time, the man who hurt him must support him. The man who hurt him must pay for the loss of his time. He must support him until he is completely healed.

But if the slave gets up after a few days, then the master will not be punished. That is because someone paid their money for the slave, and the slave belongs to them.

But if the woman was hurt badly, then the man who hurt her must be punished. The punishment must fit the crime. You must trade one life for another life.

You must trade an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,

a burn for a burn, a bruise for a bruise, a cut for a cut.

"If a man hits a slave in the eye, and the slave is blinded in that eye, then the slave will be allowed to go free. His eye is the payment for his freedom. This is the same for a man or a woman slave.

If a master hits his slave in the mouth, and the slave loses a tooth, then the slave will be allowed to go free. The slave's tooth is payment for the slave's freedom. This is the same for a man or a woman slave.