Common English Bible

Exodus 21:2-12 Common English Bible (CEB)

2. When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he will serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he will go free without any payment.

3. If he came in single, he will leave single. If he came in married, then his wife will leave with him.

4. If his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master. He will leave single.

5. However, if the slave clearly states, "I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I don’t want to go free,"

6. 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.

7. When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shouldn’t be set free in the same way as male slaves are set free.

8. If she doesn’t please her master who chose her for himself, then her master must let her be bought back by her family. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people since he has treated her unfairly.

9. If he assigns her to his son, he must give her the rights of a daughter.

10. If he takes another woman for himself, he may not reduce her food, clothing, or marital rights.

11. If he doesn’t do these three things for her, she will go free without any payment, for no money.

12. Anyone who hits and kills someone should be put to death.