4 Masters, treat your bondservants^[a] justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

⁹ Masters, do the same to them, ^(A)and stop your threatening, knowing that ^(B)he who is both their Master^[a] and yours is in heaven, and that ^(C)there is no partiality with him.

^14 (A)‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; ^(B)you must set him free from your service.’ But ^(C)your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes ^(D)by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and ^(E)you made a covenant before me in the ^(F)house that is called by my name, ¹⁶ but then you turned around ^(G)and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, ^(H)whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

¹⁷ “Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me ^(I)by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; ^(J)behold, I proclaim to you liberty ^(K)to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. ^(L)I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁴ “You shall not ^(A)oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. ^15 (B)You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), ^(C)lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.

^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.

⁴⁶ You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel ^(A)you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

^43 (A)You shall not rule over him ^(B)ruthlessly but ^(C)shall fear your God.

²⁶ “When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. ²⁷ If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.