seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 15:12 If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free. 13 And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. 14 Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.
16 But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, 17 then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.
18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
16 But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, 17 then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.
18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
Look at verses 16 and 17. This commentary is from bibletrack.org.
And your Hebrew slaves go free in the sabbatical year also - along with money you must give them to start their lives over again. What if the Hebrew slave decides he (she) wants to stay? Ouuuuch! Verse 17 shows the original pierced ears...with an aul! You'll notice that the breaks given in this chapter are for the Hebrews only; foreigners received no such consideration.
One popular misuse of terminology is that of "bondservant" or "bondman." The Hebrew slave who chooses to remain after his six years of servitude does go through the procedure with the aul through the ear as also seen in Exodus 21:6 , but he is not then referred to as a "bondservant." That term is used to describe a non-Hebrew slave or Hebrew slaves who were enslaved by non-Hebrews. The Hebrew man who chooses to leave servitude after his commitment may leave with what he brought into servitude, but not with the wife and children who may have been awarded to him during the six years by his master. That is when he may choose to stay himself past his specified commitment.
It is interesting that the poor of the Hebrew community got a fresh start every seven years according to this law. As a matter of fact, it was the previous slave owner who was responsible for providing this good start to his former slave (verses 13-14).
One popular misuse of terminology is that of "bondservant" or "bondman." The Hebrew slave who chooses to remain after his six years of servitude does go through the procedure with the aul through the ear as also seen in Exodus 21:6 , but he is not then referred to as a "bondservant." That term is used to describe a non-Hebrew slave or Hebrew slaves who were enslaved by non-Hebrews. The Hebrew man who chooses to leave servitude after his commitment may leave with what he brought into servitude, but not with the wife and children who may have been awarded to him during the six years by his master. That is when he may choose to stay himself past his specified commitment.
It is interesting that the poor of the Hebrew community got a fresh start every seven years according to this law. As a matter of fact, it was the previous slave owner who was responsible for providing this good start to his former slave (verses 13-14).
This is from the easy English site.
This law is about Israelites who were slaves. To be a slave was not a bad thing for the Israelites. They had to look after their slaves well. And the Israelites had to respect their slaves. Slaves served other people in order to pay their debts. When their owners freed them, the owners gave them generous gifts. That would help them in their new lives. And it would remind their owners about what God had done. God had freed the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. Sometimes a slave wanted to remain with his master. The master made a hole in the slave’s ear. To do that, he would push a piece of metal through the slave’s ear and into the door. That showed that the slave wanted to join the master’s home.
So the original pierced ear was pierced with an awl. Since the tools these Hebrews used would have been the tools they grew up with, and those tools probably came from Egypt.... I googled "Ancient Egyptian awl".
When I was a kid we used a threaded needle and a potato. Turned out I was allergic to most earrings so I had to go through that ordeal and the infections that followed only to let the holes heal. I still have the callus to remind me of those "carefree" days of my early teens.
