In Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Moses instructed the children of Israel that if a fellow Hebrew was sold into servitude, the Hebrew slave would serve six years, and in the seventh year go free. When the master set the slave free, the master was to give the former slave parting gifts. But it the slave tells the master that they did not want to leave, the master was to take an awl and put it through the slave’s ear into the door, and the slave was to become the master’s slave in perpetuity.
As this video points out, some of the laws seem strange. Why would a master give gifts to the slave? And if the slave wanted to stay in the year of release, why pierce his ear? Learn how these oddities reveal a link betwteen individual slavery and the national slavery that Israel suffered as a nation in Egypt.
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Keywords: servitude, slave, slavery, servant, bondservant, bond servant, bondage, year of release, awl, pierce ear, pierce ear of slave, piercing the ear, piercing the ear of a servant, doorpost, Stockholm syndrome, servitude in Egypt, Egyptian slavery, Egyptian servitude
Bible reference(s): Ex. 21:7, Lev. 25:39, Deu 15:1, Deu 15:12-18
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