Regulations Regarding Hebrew Slaves

21 “And these are the regulations that you will set before them.

2 ‘If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing.[fn] 3 If he comes in single, he will go out single. If he is the husband of a wife, his wife will go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears for him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and the slave will go out single. 5 But if the slave explicitly says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,” 6 his master will present him to God[fn] and bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve him forever.

7 “ ‘And if a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she will not go out as male slaves go out. 8 If she does not please her master[fn] who selected her, he will allow her to be redeemed; he has no authority to sell her to foreign people, since he has dealt treacherously with her. 9 And if he selects her for his son, he shall do for her according to the regulations for daughters. 10 If he takes for himself another, he will not reduce her food, her clothing, or her right of cohabitation. 11 And if he does not do for her these three, she shall go out for nothing; there will not be silver[fn]paid for her.