Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Exodus 20
²⁵ If you use stones to build my altar, use only natural, uncut stones. Do not shape the stones with a tool, for that would make the altar unfit for holy use.
²⁶ And do not approach my altar by going up steps. If you do, someone might look up under your clothing and see your nakedness.
Exodus 21
¹ “These are the regulations you must present to Israel.
² “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.
³ If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him.
⁴ “If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master.
⁵ But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’
⁶ If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.
⁷ “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.
⁸ If she does not satisfy her owner, he must allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.
⁹ But if the slave’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave but as a daughter.