Ordinances for the People

1 “Now these are the aordinances which you are to set before them:

2 “If you buy aa Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

3 “If he comes 1alone, he shall go out 1alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

4 “If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out 1alone.

5 “But aif the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’

6 then his master shall bring him to 1God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

7 “aIf a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to 1go free bas the male slaves 1do.

8 “If she is 1displeasing in the eyes of her master 2who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his 3unfairness to her.

9 “If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.

10 “If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her 1food, her clothing, or aher conjugal rights.

11 “If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.