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18 Don't complain when you have to set a slave free. After all, you got six years of service at half the cost of hiring someone to do the work.[a]

First-Born Animals

(Leviticus 27.26,27; Numbers 18.15-18)

Moses said to Israel:

19 (A) If the first-born animal of a cow or sheep or goat is a male, it must be given to the Lord. Don't put first-born cattle to work or cut wool from first-born sheep. 20 Instead, each year you must take the first-born of these animals to the place where the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped. You and your family will sacrifice them to the Lord and then eat them as part of a sacred meal.

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Footnotes

  1. 15.18 six years … work: Or “six years of service, and it cost you no more than if you had hired someone to do the work”; or “six years of service, for what you would have had to pay a worker for two years.”

18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

The Firstborn Animals

19 Set apart for the Lord(A) your God every firstborn male(B) of your herds and flocks.(C) Do not put the firstborn of your cows to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep.(D) 20 Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose.(E)

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