They answered him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”
Exodus 21:6 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021 then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him for life. More versionsKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. Amplified Bible - Classic Edition Then his master shall bring him to God [the judges as His agents]; he shall bring him to the door or doorpost and shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. American Standard Version (1901) then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever. Common English Bible then his master will bring him before God. He will bring him to the door or the doorpost. There his master will pierce his ear with a pointed tool, and he will serve him as his slave for life. Catholic Public Domain Version then his lord shall make an offering for him to the heavens, and it shall be applied to the door and the posts, and he will pierce his ear with an awl. And he shall be his servant in perpetuity. Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl. And he shall be his servant for ever. |
They answered him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”
God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
“When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine.
But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person,’
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
And I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.
They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the Jubilee.
The officials within it are roaring lions; its judges are evening wolves that leave nothing until the morning.
I charged your judges at that time: ‘Give the members of your community a fair hearing and judge rightly between one person and another, whether kin or resident alien.
But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,
then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. “You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.
“You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people.
But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time.”
Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself utterly abhorrent to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.”
David said to Achish, “Very well, then you shall know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”