8973. Verses 2-6 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in his body, he shall go out in his body; ¹ if he is master of a woman, ² his woman shall go out with him. If his master has given him a woman and she has borne him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out in his body ³ . And if the slave says plainly, I love my master, my woman, and my children, I will not go out free; his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

'When you buy a Hebrew slave' means those within the Church who are imbued with the truths of religious teachings and not with the good that accords with those truths. 'He shall serve for six years' means a state of labour and some conflict, and of consequent strengthening of truth. 'And in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing' means a state of strengthened truth without its works. 'If he comes in his body' means truth without delight. 'He shall go out in his body' means a state of truth without delight, also after conflict. 'If he is master of a woman' means truth together with delight linked to it. 'His woman shall go out with him' means a state of truth together with delight joined to it, also after conflict. 'If his master has given him a woman' means good attached by the spiritual to truth during conflict. 'And she has borne him sons or daughters' means truths and forms of good which are derived from that good. 'The woman and her children shall be her master's' means that the good attached by the spiritual to truth, and the forms of good and the truths derived from that good, must not be assigned to truth as its own. 'And he shall go out in his body' means a state after conflict, which is solely one of strengthened and implanted truth. 'And if the slave says plainly' means thought then springing from the implanted truth. 'I love my master, my woman, and my children' means the delight in remembering forms of spiritual good. 'I will not go out free' means the delight of obedience. 'His master shall bring him to God' means the state he then enters in keeping with Divine order. 'And shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost' means a state in which strengthened and implanted truth communicates with spiritual good. 'And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl' means a representative sign of obedience. 'And he shall serve him forever' means into eternity.

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