Deuteronomy 15:17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

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.

Cross References

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.

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.”