⁷ “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.^{(A) 8} If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. ⁹ If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰ If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife.^{[a](B) 11} And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money.

²⁰ “When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished.

²⁶ “When a slaveowner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. ²⁷ If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth.

²⁰ “If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave, designated for another man but not ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, since she has not been freed,

⁶ You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you,^(A)

⁴⁴ As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves.

¹⁴ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.^(A)

¹² “If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold^[a] to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free.^{(A) 13} And when you send a male slave^[b] out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. ¹⁴ Provide for him liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today.^{(B) 16} But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,^{(C) 17} then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave forever.

“You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.

¹⁸ “Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers, and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

¹⁶ He will take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle^[a] and donkeys and put them to his work.

Treacherous Treatment of Slaves

⁸ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them,^{(A) 9} that all should set free their Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold another Judean in slavery.^{(B) 10} And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that all would set free their slaves, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again; they obeyed and set them free. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free and brought them again into subjection as slaves. ¹² The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ¹³ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying,^{(C) 14} “Every seventh year each of you must set free any Hebrews who have been sold to you and have served you six years; you must set them free from your service.” But your ancestors did not listen to me or incline their ears to me.^{(D) 15} You yourselves recently repented and did what was right in my sight by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name,^{(E) 16} but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back your male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them again into subjection to be your slaves.^(F)