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)

¹⁴ ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’^[a](A) Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention^(B) to me.