¹⁶ But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you,

⁵ “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’^{(A) 6} then his master must take him before the judges.^[a](B) He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce^(C) his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.^(D)