4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.

In the last verses we heard that a servant would go free after six years of labor, however if he took a wife of his master’s slaves, and had children with her, the wife and children would remain with the master after the servant went free. Of course, the wife would also be freed after her six years of service had transpired if she was a Hebrew, so it would seem that this rule was only applicable when the spouse was a foreigner. In such a case, the man’s union to the woman would have been permitted, but not sanctified. The marriage would not have been a covenant before the Lord to such a degree that the husband and wife were to “cleave to one another, and be one flesh.”

As mentioned in the last post, though, the privileges of Israelite nationality was openly-exclusive. The Lord had already related how any foreigner might become a part of the chosen people, so presumably the foreign wife could take on the Hebrew covenants and be counted among the Lord’s people, and then be eligible for freedom from her servitude and remain with her husband.

Or, if she would not, the husband would also have the opportunity to make himself as a foreigner, testifying before the judges that he would rather remain in servitude than go free, and the master would perform a ritual where he fastened the man to his door, making the man a permanent fixture of his household.