Deuteronomy 15:17 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

¹⁷ 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.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹⁷ then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹⁷ Then take an awl and pierce his ear through to the door, and he shall be your servant always. And also to your bondwoman you shall do likewise.

American Standard Version (1901)

¹⁷ then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maid-servant thou shalt do likewise.

Common English Bible

¹⁷ then you may take a needle and pierce his ear with it into the doorframe. From that point on, he will be your permanent servant. Do the same thing for female servants.)

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and pierce his ear, at the door of your house. And he shall serve you even forever. You shall also act similarly toward your woman servant.

Deuteronomy 15:17 Cross References

1 Samuel 1:22

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.”

Exodus 21:5

But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person,’

Exodus 21:6

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.

Deuteronomy 15:16

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,

Deuteronomy 15:18

“Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers, and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.