Deuteronomy 15:12-23

English Standard Version

^12 (A)“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold^[a] to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ¹³ And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. ¹⁴ You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. ^(B)As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. ^15 (C)You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. ¹⁶ But ^(D)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, ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave^[b] forever. And to your female slave^[c] you shall do the same. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired worker he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

^19 (E)“All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ^20 (F)You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will choose. ^21 (G)But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² You shall eat it within your towns. ^(H)The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer. ^23 (I)Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.