Bible Strands
Exodus 21:26
If a man strikes and blinds the eye of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The text records divine legislation given to Israel concerning the legal status of enslaved persons. It addresses a master who inflicts permanent injury on his male or female slave.
The words — The verb יַכֶּ֨ה (yaKeh) translates literally to "he will strike," marking the initiating action. The noun עֵ֥ין ('ein) means "the eye," designating the specific injury that triggers the mandated penalty.
The thread — This statute functions as part of a consecutive legal sequence in Exodus 21:25 and 21:27 that standardizes compensation for bodily harm to slaves. It connects to the death penalty for striking a slave in Exodus 21:20 and the judicial warning against blinded judgment in Deuteronomy 16:19.
Why it lands — The text states that blinding a slave requires immediate manumission as direct compensation. It requires readers to accept that permanent physical damage to an enslaved person carries a fixed, non-negotiable legal consequence rather than a monetary settlement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
Cross-references
- Exodus 21:20 If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.
- Deuteronomy 16:19 Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.
- Nehemiah 5:5 We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”
- Job 31:13 If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,
- Psalms 9:12 For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
- Psalms 10:14 But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
- Psalms 10:18 to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, that the men of the earth may strike terror no more.
- Psalms 72:12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.
- Proverbs 22:22 Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,
- Ephesians 6:9 And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.