This page gives you Exodus 21 Bible study questions with leader’s notes, so a small group, Sunday class or personal reader can work through the chapter without preparing a separate summary. Exodus 21 lays out the first body of case law in the covenant at Sinai, covering the treatment of servants, violence, injury and the responsibility that comes with owning property. The questions move from what the text says, to what it means, to how it shapes everyday life.
Exodus 21 at a Glance
The chapter opens with the regulations for Hebrew servants, which limit a debt-servant’s term to six years, protect a wife and children brought into the household, and allow a servant who chooses lifelong service to mark that choice publicly. It then turns to the daughter sold as a servant, whose protections include faithful treatment and provision for food, clothing and marriage rights.
From there the chapter addresses violence and accident: deliberate killing, striking a parent, kidnapping, and injuries between neighbors or to servants. It closes with a long section on goring oxen and open pits, where the question is who bears responsibility when an animal or a hazard causes harm. The chapter repeatedly asks what is just, what is proportionate, and who must make restitution.
Observation Questions
Use this set first, before anyone offers an opinion. Ask the group to point to the words on the page, read the verses aloud, and resist interpretation until the facts are clear.
Exodus 21:1-2
1 “Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them. 2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
(WEB)
Read these opening verses first to set the frame: these are ordinances the people must hear and keep. Ask the group to notice the word “set before them,” which points to instruction meant to be known and applied, not hidden.
Exodus 21:5-6
5 But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
(WEB)
This passage captures the choice a servant makes to remain in the household and the public act that marks it. Reading it aloud lets the group hear the seriousness of a freely made lifelong commitment.
Exodus 21:22-25
22 “If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow. 23 But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
(WEB)
These verses hold the much-discussed principle of proportionate justice. Reading them together prevents the group from isolating the famous phrase and missing the context of harm and restitution around it.
Exodus 21:28-29
28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its meat shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible. 29 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
(WEB)
These verses show how knowledge of danger changes responsibility. Hearing them aloud helps the group grasp the difference between an unforeseen accident and a known risk that was ignored.
Exodus 21:33-34
33 “If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn’t cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
(WEB)
This short passage about an open pit is concrete and easy to picture. It gives the group a clear example of the law’s concern that the owner of a hazard make good the harm it causes.
Memory Verse for Exodus 21
Exodus 21:24
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot…
(WEB)
Memorize this verse in the context of verses 22-25 so it is remembered as a limit on retaliation and a call to proportion. Ask the group to say it aloud together and then explain in their own words what it restrains.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you having read a chapter that is hard in places and full of care for people who are easily overlooked. Teach us to hold power with justice, to take seriously the harm that our choices and our negligence can cause, and to seek restoration for those who have been hurt. Give us wisdom to apply your ordinances with mercy, and courage to act when we know of danger we can prevent. Shape the way we treat those who depend on us, and help us reflect your heart in every household and community we touch. Amen.
