Exodus 21:6

then his master must take him to the place where they worship God (OR, to the owner’s house). There he must make the slave stand against the door or the doorpost. Then the master will use an ◄awl/pointed metal rod► to make a hole in the slave’s ear. Then he will fasten a tag to the slave’s ear to indicate that ◄he will own that slave for the rest of his life/he will own the slave as long as the slave lives►.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

5But when it is time for the slave to be set free, if the slave says, ‘I love my master and my wife and my children, and I do not want to be set free,’

7If a man sells his daughter to become a slave, she should not be set free after six years, as the male slaves are.

Read all of Exodus 21

Cross References

Exodus 12:12On that night I will go through all the country of Egypt, and I will kill all the oldest males in Egypt, both humans and animals. By doing this I will show that all the gods in Egypt are worthless. I can do this, because I am Yahweh, the all-powerful God.

Exodus 21:22Suppose two people are fighting and they hurt a pregnant woman with the result that ◄she has a miscarriage/her baby is born prematurely and dies►. If the woman is not harmed in any other way, the one who injured her must pay a fine. He must pay whatever the woman’s husband demands, after a judge approves of the fine.

Exodus 22:28Do not ◄revile/speak evil about► me, and do not ◄curse/ask me to do harmful things to► any ruler of your people.

Leviticus 25:40Treat him like you treat workers that you hire or like someone who is living on your land temporarily. But he must work for you only until the Year of Celebration.

Deuteronomy 1:16I instructed/told your leaders, ‘Listen to the disputes that occur among your people. Judge each dispute, including disputes between close relatives and quarrels between your people and people from other countries who live among you.

Deuteronomy 16:18“Appoint judges and other officials throughout your tribes, in all the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. They must judge people fairly/justly.

Matthew Henry on Exodus 21:2-12

Judicial Laws. ( b. c. 1491.) 1 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 And if the servant shall plainly say,… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Exodus 21:6