Exodus 21:1-6
New American Standard Bible
Ordinances for the People
21 “Now these are the (A)ordinances which you are to set before them:
2 “If you buy (B)a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall leave as a free man without a payment to you. 3 If he comes [a]alone, he shall leave [b]alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall leave with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall leave [c]alone. 5 But (C)if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not leave as a free man,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to [d]God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an [e]awl; and he shall serve him permanently.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 21:3 Lit by himself
- Exodus 21:3 Lit by himself
- Exodus 21:4 Lit by himself
- Exodus 21:6 Or the judges (who acted in God’s name)
- Exodus 21:6 I.e., a pointed tool
Exodus 21:1-6
King James Version
21 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
5 And 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 unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Read full chapterNew American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
