Exodus 21:6

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

His master shall bore his ear On this Michaelis has the following observations: “In order to guard against all abuse, it was necessary that the transaction should be gone about judicially, and that the magistrate should know it . It was the intention of Moses that every Hebrew who wished to continue a servant for life should, with the magistrate’s previous knowledge, bear a given token thereof in his own body . He thus guarded against the risk of a master having it in his power either to pretend that his servant had promised to serve him during his life, when he had not, or, by ill usage, during the period that he had him in his service, to extort any such promise from him. The statute of Moses made the boring of the ears in some degree ignominious to a freeman; because it became the sign whereby a perpetual slave was to be known. And if the Israelites had, for this reason, abandoned the practice, Moses would not have been displeased. Indeed, this was probably the very object which he had in view to get imperceptibly effected by this law: for in the wearing of earrings superstition was deeply concerned.” Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. ii, p. 178. London, 1814.