² “·If [or When] you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve you for six years. In the seventh year you are to set him free, ·and he will have to pay nothing [with no debt]. ³ If he ·is not married when he becomes your slave [^Lcame single/alone], he must leave ·without a wife [^Lsingle; alone]. But if he ·is married when he becomes your slave [^Lcomes in with a wife], he may ·take [^Lgo out with] his wife with him. ⁴ If the slave’s master gives him a wife, and she gives birth to sons or daughters, the woman and her children will belong to the master. ·When the slave is set free, only he may leave [^LHe will go out single/alone].

⁵ “But if the slave says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children, and I don’t want to go free,’ ⁶ then the slave’s master must take him to ·God [^Tthe judges; ^CHebrew: Elohim]. The master is to take him to a door or ·doorframe [doorpost] and ·punch a hole through [pierce] the slave’s ear using ·a sharp tool [an awl]. Then the slave will serve that master all his life.