Deuteronomy 15:17

17 Then take a naule and nayle his eare too the doore there with ad let him be thi seruaunte foreuer and vnto thi mayde seruaunte thou shalt doo likewise.

Deuteronomy 15:17 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 15:17

Then thou shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear
unto the door
Not of his master's house, but of the sanhedrim, or court of judicature, according to the Targum of Jonathan, before whom he was to be brought, and declare his desire to continue with his master; (See Gill on Exodus 21:6),

and he shall be thy servant for ever;
that is, unto the jubilee, as the same Targum; for then all servants were released, and so Jarchi calls it the ever of jubilee:

and also unto thy maidservant thou shall do likewise;
not bore her ear, for, as both Jarchi and Aben Ezra, and others say, she was not to be bored; though some are of opinion that a maidservant who was willing to continue with her master was to be bored as a manservant; but this respects the manner of dismissing her, or letting her go free, when she was not to go empty, but to be liberally furnished and supplied, as a manservant was.

Deuteronomy 15:17 In-Context

15 And remembre that thou wast a seruaunte in the londe of Egipte, and the Lorde thi God delyuered the thence: wherfore I commaunde the this thinge to daye.

16 But and yf he saye vnto the, I will not goo awaye from the, because he loueth the and thine housse and is well at ease with the.

17 Then take a naule and nayle his eare too the doore there with ad let him be thi seruaunte foreuer and vnto thi mayde seruaunte thou shalt doo likewise.

18 And let it not greue thine eyes to lett him goo out from the, for he hath bene worthe a double hired seruaunte to the in his seruyce .vi. yeres. And the Lorde thi God shall blesse the in all that thou doest.

19 All the firstborne that come of thine oxen and of thi shepe that are males, thou shalt halowe vnto the Lorde thi God. Thou shalt do no seruyce with the firstborne of thi shepe: