Exodus 21:6

Shall bring him unto the judges; partly, that it may appear he chooseth this freely, and is not overawed nor overreached by his master; and partly, that the agreement being so publicly and solemnly confirmed, might be irrevocable. He shall also bring him to the door, to wit, of his master's house, as it is expressed, Deuteronomy 15:17; a token that he was fixed there, and never to go a freeman out of these doors. His master shall bore his ear through with an awl, as a note of a servant; as it continued to be long after this in Syria and Arabia, as Juvenal and Petpontus Arbiter affirm; and it did fitly represent his settled and perpetual obligation to abide in that house, and there to hear and obey his master's commands. See Psalms 40:6. For ever, i.e. not only for six years more, but without any limitation of time, as long as he lives, until the jubilee, which is an exception made by God to this law, Leviticus 25:40 Deuteronomy 15:17. The Hebrew word olam, here used, oft signifies not eternity, but only a long time. See Exodus 12:14.