- Prayer and Worship - Beliefs and Teachings - Issues and Action
- Catholic Giving - About USCCB Laws Regarding Slaves. 1These
are the ordinances* you shall lay before them. 2a When you
purchase a Hebrew slave,* he is to serve you for six years, but
in the seventh year he shall leave as a free person without any
payment. 3If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone;
if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him. 4But if
his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters,
the woman and her children belong to her master and the man
shall leave alone. 5If, however, the slave declares, ‘I love my
master and my wife and children; I will not leave as a free
person,’ 6his master shall bring him to God* and there, at the
door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus
keeping him as his slave forever. 7When a man sells his daughter
as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do. 8But if she
displeases her master, who had designated her* for himself, he
shall let her be