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 ( Psalms 82:1 Psalms 82:6 ) , 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 F12:
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 F13: 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: F14
and he shall serve him for ever;
as long as he lives F15; 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.