8973. Verses 2-6. When thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. If in his body he shall come in, in his body he shall go out; if he is master of a woman, then his woman shall go out with him. If his master shall give him a woman, and she shall bear him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall be his master's, and he shall go out in his body. And if saying the servant shall say, I love my master, my woman, and my children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him unto the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore through his ear with his awl; and he shall serve him forever.
"When thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant," signifies those within the church who are in the truths of doctrine and not in good according to them; "six years he shall serve," signifies a state of labor and of some combat and of the consequent confirmation of truth; "and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing," signifies a state of truth confirmed without exertion on his part; "if in his body he shall come in," signifies truth without delight; "in his body he shall go out," signifies a state of truth without delight also after combat; "if he is master of a woman," signifies truth with delight adjoined; "then his woman shall go out with him," signifies a state of truth with delight conjoined also after combat; "if his master shall give him a woman," signifies good from the spiritual adjoined to truth while in combat; "and she bear him sons or daughters," signifies the truths and goods thence derived; "the woman and her children shall be his master's," signifies that good adjoined to truth by the spiritual, together with the goods and truths thence derived, shall not be appropriated to truth; "and he shall go out in his body," signifies the state after combat, which is merely one of confirmed and implanted truth; "and if saying the servant shall say," signifies thought then from the implanted truth; "I love my master, my woman, and my children," signifies the delight of the remembrance of spiritual goods; "I will not go out free," signifies the delight of obedience; "then his master shall bring him unto God," signifies a state into which he then enters according to Divine order; "and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post," signifies a state of communication of truth confirmed and implanted with spiritual good; "and his master shall bore through his ear with his awl," signifies a representative of obedience; "and he shall serve him forever," signifies to eternity.
