Exodus 21:2-11

New International Version

Hebrew Servants^(A)^(B)

²“If you buy a Hebrew servant,^(C) he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free,^(D) without paying anything. ³If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

⁵“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’^(E) ⁶then his master must take him before the judges.^[a]^(F) He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce^(G) his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.^(H)

⁷“If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. ⁸If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself,^[b] he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. ⁹If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. ¹⁰If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights.^(I) ¹¹If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

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Footnotes

Exodus 21:6 Or before God
Exodus 21:8 Or master so that he does not choose her

Deuteronomy 15:12-18

New International Version

Freeing Servants^(A)^(B)

¹²If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free.^(C) ¹³And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor^(D) and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵Remember that you were slaves^(E) in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you.^(F) That is why I give you this command today.

¹⁶But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, ¹⁷then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.

¹⁸Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

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