Regulations Regarding Hebrew Slaves

21 “And these are the regulations that you will set before them.

² ‘If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing.^{[a] 3} If he comes in single, he will go out single. If he is the husband of a wife, his wife will go out with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears for him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and the slave will go out single. ⁵ But if the slave explicitly says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,” ⁶ his master will present him to God^[b] and bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve him forever.

⁷ “‘And if a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she will not go out as male slaves go out. ⁸ If she does not please her master^[c] who selected her, he will allow her to be redeemed; he has no authority to sell her to foreign people, since he has dealt treacherously with her. ⁹ And if he selects her for his son, he shall do for her according to the regulations for daughters. ¹⁰ If he takes for himself another, he will not reduce her food, her clothing, or her right of cohabitation. ¹¹ And if he does not do for her these three, she shall go out for nothing; there will not be silver^[d] paid for her.