¹⁷ In that case, take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door. After that, he will be your servant for life. And do the same for your female servants.

²² But Hannah did not go. She told her husband, “Wait until the boy is weaned. Then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there with the Lord permanently.^[a]”

³⁹ “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave. ⁴⁰ Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ At that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally allotted to their ancestors. ⁴² The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves.