Exodus 21:6

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

Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

Shall bring him unto the judges; partly, that it may appear he chooseth this freely, and is not overawed nor overreached by his master; and partly, that the agreement being so publicly and solemnly confirmed, might be irrevocable. He shall also bring him to the door, to wit, of his master’ s house, as it is expressed, ; a token that he was fixed there, and never to go a freeman out of these doors. His master shall bore his ear through with an awl, as a note of a servant; as it continued to be long after this in Syria and Arabia, as Juvenal and Petpontus Arbiter affirm; and it did fitly represent his settled and perpetual obligation to abide in that house, and there to hear and obey his master’ s commands. See . For ever, i.e. not only for six years more, but without any limitation of time, as long as he lives, until the jubilee, which is an exception made by God to this law, . The Hebrew word olam, here used, oft signifies not eternity, but only a long time. See .

Exodus 21:6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.Ver. 6. And he shall serve him.] Being υπερετηςκαιοργανονκαιολωςεκεινου, as Aristotle hath it; the master’ s instrument, underling, and wholly his. He doeth his own, and not his master’ s will, that doeth no more than himself will: this is a holiday servant, as they say.

(6) His master shall bring him unto the judges.—A formal act was necessary. The State must sanction the passing of a citizen into the slave condition, and so the “judges” were called in. The change was to be made by a significant ceremony. In order to mark that henceforth the volunteer bondman became attached to the household, he was to be physically attached to the house by having an awl forced through his ear, and then driven into the door or door-post. Hence “opening the ear” became a synonym for assigning a man to the slave condition in perpetuity (Psalms 40:6). The word used for “judges” is ha-Elohim, “the gods,” or “the exalted ones,” which has the same sense in Exodus 22:8-9.

Verse 6. Shall bring him unto the judges] אל האלהים el haelohim, literally, to God; or, as the Septuagint have it, προςτοκριτηριονΘεου, to the judgment of God; who condescended to dwell among his people; who determined all their differences till he had given them laws for all cases, and who, by his omniscience, brought to light the hidden things of dishonesty. See Exodus 22:8. Bore his ear through with an awl] This was a ceremony sufficiently significant, as it implied, 1. That he was closely attached to that house and family. 2. That he was bound to hear all his master's orders, and to obey them punctually. Boring of the ear was an ancient custom in the east. It is referred to by Juvenal: - Prior, inquit, ego adsum. Cur timeam, dubitemve locum defendere? quamvis Natus ad Euphraten, MOLLES quod in AURE FENESTRAE Arguerint, licet ipse negem. Sat. i. 102. "First come, first served, he cries; and I, in spite Of your great lordships, will maintain my right: Though born a slave, though my torn EARS are BORED, 'Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the lord." DRYDEN. Calmet quotes a saying from Petronius as attesting the same thing; and one from Cicero, in which he rallies a Libyan who pretended he did not hear him: "It is not," said he, "because your ears are not sufficiently bored;" alluding to his having been a slave.

6. unto God] i.e. (if the rend. be correct: see below) to the nearest sanctuary (for the expression, comp. especially 1 Samuel 10:3), in order that he might there affirm solemnly before God his intention to remain with his master. ‘God’ is resorted to here, not for a judicial decision (see on Exodus 18:15-16), but for the slave’s declaration to be solemnly ratified: still, as this would be done in the presence of God’s human representatives, the priests or judges, RVm. (= AV.), following Targ., Pesh., and Jewish interpreters (cf. LXX. τόκριτήριοντοῦθεοῦ, ‘the tribunal of God’), renders the judges. This, however, is only a paraphrase; for though God, in cases such as the present, may be conceived as acting through a judge, as His representative or mouth-piece, that does not make ‘Elohim’ mean ‘judge,’ or ‘judges.’ ‘God’ is used in the same sense in Exodus 22:8-9, and 1 Samuel 2:25. and he shall bring him] i.e (Di.) the judge at the sanctuary: better, perhaps, one shall bring him = he shall be brought (G.-K. §144d). the door] not, as has been supposed, of the sanctuary, but, if the ceremony is to bear any relation to the thing which it is intended to signify, of his master’s house. The ear, as the organ of hearing, is naturally that of obedience as well; and its attachment (Deuteronomy 15:17) to the door of the house would signify the perpetual attachment of the slave to that particular household. Probably it was the right ear which was pierced: for the preference shewn for this, comp. Leviticus 8:23 f., Exodus 14:14; Exodus 14:17. The connexion ‘bring him to God (or the gods),’ and ‘bring him to the door’ seems, however, to suggest that both were in the same place: hence, as the ‘door’ of the sanctuary seems out of the question, Bδ. and others render hβ-’ĕ ?lτhξm (as is perfectly possible: cf. Genesis 3:5 RVm.) by the gods, supposing the reference to be to the household gods, or Penates, of the master’s house, kept and worshipped near the door: the ceremony would then have the effect of bringing the give into a relation of dependence on the gods of his master’s family, and of admitting him to the full religious privileges of the family (cf. Eerdmans Expositor, Aug. 1909, p. 163 f.). Kautzsch, on the other hand, supposes an image of Jehovah to be referred to (DB. v. 642b). bore his ear] Whether a hole in the ear was really among other nations a mark of slavery, or even of dependence, is very doubtful: the passages cited by Di. from Kn. (cf. Now. Arch. i. 177) do not seem to shew more than that it was a mark of nationality: the ear was often bored (for ear-rings) among Africans and Orientals in general, but not specifically by slaves. See esp. Mayor’s note on Juv. i. 104 (‘Natus ad Euphraten, molles quod in aure fenestrae Arguerint’), Macrob. Saturn, vii. 3, Plin. H.N. xi. § 136: on Plaut. Poen. v. 2. 21 (‘aures anulatae’), see Ussing’s note.

Forever - That is, most probably, until the next Jubilee, when every Hebrew was set free. See Leviticus 25:40, Leviticus 25:50.

6. Unto the judges — Hebrews, unto the gods: here meaning the local magistrates. Comp. Psalms 82:6; John 10:34.