If your fellow Hebrew – whether male or female – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant go free.

If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves.

As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.

Indeed, it was the very hand of the Lord that eliminated them from within the camp until they were all gone.

They did not see the awesome deeds he performed in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his whole land,

Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime.

The bars of your gates will be made of iron and bronze, and may you have lifelong strength.

He is the one you should praise; he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen.

For the Lord your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently.

and serves in the name of the Lord his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord.

So we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression.

Therefore the Lord brought us out of Egypt with tremendous strength and power, as well as with great awe-inspiring signs and wonders.

But I fear the reaction of their enemies, for their adversaries would misunderstand and say, “Our power is great, and the Lord has not done all this!”’

At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings in his name, as they do to this very day.

You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Suppose your own full brother, your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have previously known,