then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
Parallel Translations
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then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
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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.
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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.
Cross-references (20)
Passages linked to Exodus 21:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 15:17 then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.
- Leviticus 25:40 As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.
- Deuteronomy 19:17-18 then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother,
- 1 Samuel 28:2 David said to Achish, “Therefore you will know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you my bodyguard forever.”
- Exodus 12:12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.
- Exodus 18:21-26 Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you. If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.” So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
- Exodus 21:22 “If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow.
- Exodus 22:8-9 If the thief isn’t found, then the master of the house shall come near to God, to find out whether or not he has put his hand on his neighbor’s goods. For every matter of trespass, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing, about which one says, ‘This is mine,’ the cause of both parties shall come before God. He whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.
- Exodus 22:28 “You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
- Leviticus 25:23 “ ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
- Numbers 25:5-8 Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.” Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.
- Deuteronomy 1:16 I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.
- Deuteronomy 16:18 You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
- 1 Samuel 1:22 But Hannah didn’t go up, for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before Yahweh, and stay there forever.”
- 1 Samuel 8:1-2 When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.
- 1 Samuel 27:12 Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he will be my servant forever.”
- 1 Kings 12:7 They replied, “If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them, and answer them with good words, then they will be your servants forever.”
- Psalms 40:6-8 Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
- Zephaniah 3:3 Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
- Isaiah 1:26 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, a faithful town.’
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Where the judges sat.
Where the judges sat.
Hebrew, gods.
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That is, to the year of Jubilee, which was every fiftieth year.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 21:6 Then his master shall bring him unto…
Exo 21:6 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.
Ver. 6. And he shall serve him.] Being υπερετης και οργανον και ολως εκεινου, as Aristotle hath it; the master’s instrument, underling, and wholly his. He doeth his own, and not his master’s will, that doeth no more than himself will: this is a holiday servant, as they say.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Shall bring him unto the judges; partly, that it…
Shall bring him unto the judges; partly, that it may appear he chooseth this freely, and is not overawed nor overreached by his master; and partly, that the agreement being so publicly and solemnly confirmed, might be irrevocable.
He shall also bring him to the door, to wit, of his master’s house, as it is expressed, Deu 15:17; a token that he was fixed there, and never to go a freeman out of these doors.
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His master shall bore his ear through with an awl, as a note of a servant; as it continued to be long after this in Syria and Arabia, as Juvenal and Petpontus Arbiter affirm; and it did fitly represent his settled and perpetual obligation to abide in that house, and there to hear and obey his master’s commands. See Psa 40:6.
For ever, i.e. not only for six years more, but without any limitation of time, as long as he lives, until the jubilee, which is an exception made by God to this law, Lev 25:40; Deu 15:17. The Hebrew word olam, here used, oft signifies not eternity, but only a long time. See Exo 12:14.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then his master shall bring him unto the judges,....…
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges,.... To Elohim, to God, to the judgment seat of God, according to the Septuagint; to some person or persons to inquire of God what is to be done in such a case; but this seems needless, since it is here declared: no doubt civil magistrates or judges are meant by Elohim, or the gods, as in Psa 82:1, and so Jarchi interprets it of the house of judgment, or sanhedrim, the court that had convicted the servant of theft, and had sold him to him, it was proper he should acquaint them with it, have their opinion about it; and especially it was proper to have him to them, that he might before them, even in open court, declare his willingness to abide in his master's service; and from whom, as the Targum of Jonathan, he was to receive power and authority to retain him in his service:
he shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost; either of the gate of the city, where the judges were sitting, before whom what follows was to be done, as Aben Ezra suggests; or rather the door of his master, or any other man's, as Maimonides (l):
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and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; or with a needle, as the Targum of Jonathan, which also says it was the right ear; and so Jarchi; and the upper part of it, as says Maimonides, who likewise observes, that that with which it is bored must be of metal; and moreover, that it is the master himself that must do it, and not his son, nor his messenger, nor a messenger of the sanhedrim (m): the ear is an hieroglyphic of obedience, and the boring of it through to the doorpost denotes the strict and close obedience of such a servant to his master, and how he is, and ought to be, addicted to his service, and be constantly employed in it, and never stir from it, nor so much as go over the threshold of his master's house. This custom of boring a servant's ear continued in Syria till the times of Juvenal, as appears by some lines of his: (n).
and he shall serve him for ever; as long as he lives (o); however, until the year of jubilee, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so Jarchi; if there was one before his death, for nothing else could free him; denoting freedom by Christ in his acceptable year, and day of salvation.
(l) Hilchot Abadim, c. 3. sect. 9. (m) Ibid. (n) "----Molles quod in aure fenestrae Arguerint, licet ipse negem?" Satyr. 1. (o) "Serviet in aeternum, qui parvo nesciet uti". Horat.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For ever - As long as he lives, or…
For ever - As long as he lives, or till the year of Jubilee.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Shall bring him unto the judges] אל…
Verse 6. Shall bring him unto the judges] אל האלהים el haelohim, literally, to God; or, as the Septuagint have it, προς το κριτηριον Θεου, to the judgment of God; who condescended to dwell among his people; who determined all their differences till he had given them laws for all cases, and who, by his omniscience, brought to light the hidden things of dishonesty. See Ex 22:8.
Bore his ear through with an awl] This was a ceremony sufficiently significant, as it implied,
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1. That he was closely attached to that house and family.
2. That he was bound to hear all his master's orders, and to obey them punctually. Boring of the ear was an ancient custom in the east.
It is referred to by Juvenal: -
Prior, inquit, ego adsum.
Cur timeam, dubitemve locum defendere? quamvis
Natus ad Euphraten, MOLLES quod in AURE FENESTRAE
Arguerint, licet ipse negem.
Sat. i. 102.
"First come, first served, he cries; and I, in spite
Of your great lordships, will maintain my right:
Though born a slave, though my torn EARS are BORED, 'Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the lord."
DRYDEN.
Calmet quotes a saying from Petronius as attesting the same thing; and one from Cicero, in which he rallies a Libyan who pretended he did not hear him: "It is not," said he, "because your ears are not sufficiently bored;" alluding to his having been a slave.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 21:6. His master shall bring him to the…
Exo 21:6. His master shall bring him to the judges — In the original, gods, magistrates being often so called as the visible representatives of God upon earth. In the Septuagint it is προς το κριτηριον θεου, to the tribunal of God, meaning probably the sanctuary. The sense seems evidently to be, that the master was to bring his slave to the temporal judges, that they might take cognizance of the case, and that the agreement, being publicly and solemnly confirmed, might be irrevocable. He shall bring him to the door — To wit, of his master’s house, as is expressed Deu 15:17, in token that he was fixed there, and must no more go out free. Shall bore his ear through with an awl — We find from Juvenal and Petronius that this continued to be a custom in Syria and Arabia many ages after this. And it fitly represented the servant’s perpetual obligation to abide in that house, and there to hear and obey his master’s commands, Psa 40:6. For ever — As long as he lives, or till the year of jubilee.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Forever - That is, most probably, until the next…
Forever - That is, most probably, until the next Jubilee, when every Hebrew was set free. See Lev 25:40, Lev 25:50. The custom of boring the ear as a mark of slavery appears to have been a common one in ancient times, observed in many nations.
Unto the judges - Literally, “before the gods אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym.” The word does not denote “judges” in a direct way, but it is to be understood as the name of God, in its ordinary plural form, God being the source of all justice. The name in this connection always has the definite article prefixed. See the marginal references. Compare Psa 82:1, Psa 82:6; Joh 10:34.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain To the gods: Elohim. That is, to the judges,…
To the gods: Elohim. That is, to the judges, or magistrates, authorized by God. (Challoner) --- In a matter of such consequence, great deliberation was requisite. --- Posts, of his own house. This ceremony tended to punish the slave for neglecting his liberty, and shewed, that he should not pass the threshold any more without his master’s leave. --- For ever; till the year of Jubilee, when all the Hebrews were to be set free, Leviticus xxv. 40. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. Unto the judges — Hebrews, unto the gods:…
6. Unto the judges — Hebrews, unto the gods: here meaning the local magistrates. Comp. Psa_82:6; Joh_10:34.
His master shall bore his ear — On this Michaelis has the following observations: “In order to guard against all abuse, it was necessary that the transaction should be gone about judicially, and that the magistrate should know it. It was the intention of Moses that every Hebrew who wished to continue a servant for life should, with the magistrate’s previous knowledge, bear a given token thereof in his own body. He thus guarded against the risk of a master having it in his power either to pretend that his servant had promised to serve him during his life, when he had not, or, by ill usage, during the period that he had him in his service, to extort any such promise from him. The statute of Moses made the boring of the ears in some degree ignominious to a freeman; because it became the sign whereby a perpetual slave was to be known. And if the Israelites had, for this reason, abandoned the practice, Moses would not have been displeased. Indeed, this was probably the very object which he had in view to get imperceptibly effected by this law: for in the wearing of earrings superstition was deeply concerned.” — Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. ii, p. 178. London, 1814.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. unto God] i.e. (if the rend. be correct:…
6. unto God] i.e. (if the rend. be correct: see below) to the nearest sanctuary (for the expression, comp. especially 1Sa_10:3), in order that he might there affirm solemnly before God his intention to remain with his master. ‘God’ is resorted to here, not for a judicial decision (see on Exo_18:15-16), but for the slave’s declaration to be solemnly ratified: still, as this would be done in the presence of God’s human representatives, the priests or judges, RVm. (= AV.), following Targ., Pesh., and Jewish interpreters (cf. LXX. τό κριτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ, ‘the tribunal of God’), renders the judges. This, however, is only a paraphrase; for though God, in cases such as the present, may be conceived as acting through a judge, as His representative or mouth-piece, that does not make ‘Elohim’ mean ‘judge,’ or ‘judges.’ ‘God’ is used in the same sense in Exo_22:8-9, and 1Sa_2:25.
and he shall bring him] i.e (Di.) the judge at the sanctuary: better, perhaps, one shall bring him = he shall be brought (G.-K. §144d).
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the door] not, as has been supposed, of the sanctuary, but, if the ceremony is to bear any relation to the thing which it is intended to signify, of his master’s house. The ear, as the organ of hearing, is naturally that of obedience as well; and its attachment (Deu_15:17) to the door of the house would signify the perpetual attachment of the slave to that particular household. Probably it was the right ear which was pierced: for the preference shewn for this, comp. Lev_8:23 f., Exo_14:14; Exo_14:17. The connexion ‘bring him to God (or the gods),’ and ‘bring him to the door’ seems, however, to suggest that both were in the same place: hence, as the ‘door’ of the sanctuary seems out of the question, Bä. and others render hâ-’ĕlôhîm (as is perfectly possible: cf. Gen_3:5 RVm.) by the gods, supposing the reference to be to the household gods, or Penates, of the master’s house, kept and worshipped near the door: the ceremony would then have the effect of bringing the give into a relation of dependence on the gods of his master’s family, and of admitting him to the full religious privileges of the family (cf. Eerdmans Expositor, Aug. 1909, p. 163 f.). Kautzsch, on the other hand, supposes an image of Jehovah to be referred to (DB. v. 642b).
bore his ear] Whether a hole in the ear was really among other nations a mark of slavery, or even of dependence, is very doubtful: the passages cited by Di. from Kn. (cf. Now. Arch. i. 177) do not seem to shew more than that it was a mark of nationality: the ear was often bored (for ear-rings) among Africans and Orientals in general, but not specifically by slaves. See esp. Mayor’s note on Juv. i. 104 (‘Natus ad Euphraten, molles quod in aure fenestrae Arguerint’), Macrob. Saturn, vii. 3, Plin. H.N. xi. § 136: on Plaut. Poen. v. 2. 21 (‘aures anulatae’), see Ussing’s note.
for ever] i.e. till his life’s end: cf. ‘for ever’ in 1Sa_1:22, and esp. in the expression, ‘servant for ever,’ Exo_27:12, Job_41:4 [Exo_40:28 Heb.]. The explanation ‘till the next jubilee’ (Jos. Ant. iv. 8. 28, and others), which has been adopted for harmonistic reasons (see Lev_25:39-41), is exegetically impossible: as Di. says, the difference between the two laws must be frankly recognized; they spring, it is evident, out of different periods of the history.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) His master shall bring him unto the judges.—A…
(6) His master shall bring him unto the judges.—A formal act was necessary. The State must sanction the passing of a citizen into the slave condition, and so the “judges” were called in. The change was to be made by a significant ceremony. In order to mark that henceforth the volunteer bondman became attached to the household, he was to be physically attached to the house by having an awl forced through his ear, and then driven into the door or door-post. Hence “opening the ear” became a synonym for assigning a man to the slave condition in perpetuity (Psa_40:6). The word used for “judges” is ha-Elohim, “the gods,” or “the exalted ones,” which has the same sense in Exo_22:8-9.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.