Exodus 21:1–11

¹“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:

²If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything. ³If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him. ⁴If 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.

⁵But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’ ⁶then his master is to bring him before the judges.^a And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

⁷And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do. ⁸If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who had designated her for himself,^b he must allow her to be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, since he has broken faith with her. ⁹And if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of his first wife. ¹¹If, however, he does not provide her with these three things, she is free to go without monetary payment.