Study Desk

"If your fellow countryman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.

"And when you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.

"You shall give generously to him from your flock, your threshing floor, and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.

"But it shall come about, if he says to you, 'I will not leave you,' because he loves you and your household, since he is doing well with you,

then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant permanently. You shall also do the same to your female slave.

"It shall not seem difficult for you when you set him free, because he has given you six years with double the service of a hired worker; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.

"You shall consecrate to the LORD your God all the firstborn males that are born in your herd and in your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

"You and your household shall eat it every year before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses.

"But if it has any impairment, such as a limp, or blindness, or any serious impairment, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

"You shall eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.

"Only you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

"You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to establish His name.

"You shall not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry), so that you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

"For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in your entire territory, and none of the meat which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall be left overnight until the morning.

but only at the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt.

"You shall cook and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents.

"For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festive assembly to the LORD your God; you shall do no work on it.

"You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.

"Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a voluntary offering of your hand in a proportional amount, which you shall give just as the LORD your God blesses you;

and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your midst, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name.