Hebrew Servants^(A)(B)

² “If you buy a Hebrew servant,^(C) he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free,^(D) without paying anything. ³ If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

⁵ “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’^{(E) 6} then his master must take him before the judges.^[a](F) He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce^(G) his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.^(H)

6 ^[a]The Lord said to Moses:

² “If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord^(A) by deceiving a neighbor^(B) about something entrusted to them or left in their care^(C) or about something stolen, or if they cheat^(D) their neighbor,

⁴ when they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return^(A) what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found, ⁵ or whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution^(B) in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering.^{(C) 6} And as a penalty they must bring to the priest, that is, to the Lord, their guilt offering,^(D) a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value.^{(E) 7} In this way the priest will make atonement^(F) for them before the Lord, and they will be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty.”

³ However, when the people of Gibeon^(A) heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,^{(B) 4} they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded^[a] with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. ⁵ They put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. ⁶ Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal^(C) and said to him and the Israelites, “We have come from a distant country;^(D) make a treaty^(E) with us.”

⁷ The Israelites said to the Hivites,^(F) “But perhaps you live near us, so how can we make a treaty^(G) with you?”

⁸ “We are your servants,^(H)” they said to Joshua.

But Joshua asked, “Who are you and where do you come from?”

⁹ They answered: “Your servants have come from a very distant country^(I) because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard reports^(J) of him: all that he did in Egypt,^(K)