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.^{(A) 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.^(B)

³⁹ “If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves.^{(A) 40} They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then they and their children with them shall go out from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property.^{(B) 42} For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. ⁴³ You shall not rule over them with harshness but shall fear your God.^{(C) 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. ⁴⁵ You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property.^{(D) 46} You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.^(E)

⁴⁷ “If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien or to a branch of the alien’s family, ⁴⁸ even after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them,^{(F) 49} or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them, or if they prosper they may redeem themselves.^{(G) 50} They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the Jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer.^{(H) 51} If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price,^{(I) 52} and if few years remain until the Jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. ⁵³ As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go out in the Jubilee year. ⁵⁵ For to me the Israelites are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

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.

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect^[a] and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ,^(A)

²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters^[a] in everything, not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.^{[b](A) 23} Whatever task you must do, work as if your soul depends on it, as for the Lord and not for humans, ²⁴ since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.^{(B) 25} For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.^(C)