Hebrew Servants

(Deuteronomy 15:12–18)

[“] These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:

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If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh [year], he shall go free without paying anything. 3 If he arrived alone he is to leave alone if he arrived with a wife, [she] is to leave with him. 4 If 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

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But if the servant declares‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master is to bring him before the judges.[fn] And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

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And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do. 8 If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who had designated her for himself,[fn] he must allow her to be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners since he has broken faith with her. 9 And if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her as with a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights [of his first wife]. 11 If, however, he does not provide her with these three things, she is free to go without monetary payment.

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