Exodus 21:1-11

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Law concerning Slaves

21 “These are the ordinances that you shall set before them:^(A)

² “When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt.^{(B) 3} If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. ⁵ But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person,’ ⁶ then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him for life.^(C)

⁷ “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.^{(D) 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](E) 11} And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money.