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,’

⁶then 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 do.

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.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

1Lit by himself
1Lit by himself
1Or the judges who acted in God’s name
1Lit go out
1Lit bad
2Another reading is so that he did not designate her
3Lit dealing treacherously
1Lit flesh

Cross references

a Lev 25:39–43; Deut 15:12–18; Jer 34:14
a Deut 15:16, 17
a Neh 5:5
b Ex 21:2, 3
a 1 Cor 7:3, 5