'If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing. If he comes in single, he will go out single. If he is the husband of a wife, his wife will go out with him. read more. If his master gives him a wife and she bears for him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and [the slave] will go out single.

" 'And if a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she will not go out as male slaves go out. If {she does not please her master} who selected her, he will allow her to be redeemed; he has no authority to sell her to foreign people, since he has dealt treacherously with her.

" 'And if your countryman [who is] with you becomes poor, and he is sold to you, {you shall not treat him as a slave}. He shall be with you like a hired worker, like a temporary resident; he shall work with you until the Year of Jubilee. read more. And he and his sons with him shall go out from you, and he shall return to his clan, and to the property of his ancestors he shall return. Because they [are] my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they shall not be sold {as a slave}.

" 'And if [the] alien or [the] temporary resident [who are] with you {prosper}, but your countryman [who is] with him becomes poor and he is sold to an alien, a temporary resident [who is] with you, or to a descendant of an alien's clan, after he is sold redemption shall be for him; one of his brothers may redeem him, read more. or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or {one of} {his close relatives} from his clan may redeem him; or [if] {he prospers}, he may redeem himself. And he shall calculate with his buyer from the year of {his selling himself} until the Jubilee; and the value of his selling shall be according to the number of years--it shall be with him like a hired worker's days. If [there are] still many years, {in keeping with them} he shall restore his redemption {in proportion to his purchase price}. And if [there are] a few years left until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall calculate for himself; he shall restore his redemption {according to the number of his years}. He shall be with him {as a yearly hired worker}; he shall not rule over him with ruthlessness {in your sight}. And if he is not redeemed by [any of] these [ways], then he and his sons with him shall go out in the Year of Jubilee. Indeed, the {Israelites} [are] servants for me; they [are] my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I [am] Yahweh your God.'"

If your relative who is a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you, and [he or she] has served you six years, then in the seventh year you shall send that person [out] {free}. And when you send him [out] free from you, you shall not send him [away] empty-handed. read more. You shall generously supply him from [among] your flocks and from your threshing floor and from your press; [according to] that [with which] Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you; therefore I [am] commanding you thus {today}. And then [if] it will happen [that] he says to you, '{I do not want to go out} from you,' because he loves you and your family, because it is good for him [to be] with you; then you shall take an awl, and you shall thrust [it] through his earlobe and into the door, and he shall be to you {a slave forever}; and you shall also do likewise for your slave woman. It shall not be hard in your eyes {when you send him forth free}, because for six years he has served you [worth] twice the wage of a hired worker; and Yahweh your God will bless you {in whatever you will do}.

But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public without due process--men who are Roman citizens--[and] threw [us] into prison, and now they are wanting to release us secretly? Certainly not! Rather let them come themselves [and] bring us out!" So the police officers reported these words to the chief magistrates, and they were afraid [when they] heard that they were Roman citizens. read more. And they came [and] apologized to them, and [after they] brought [them] out they asked [them] to depart from the city.

But Paul said, "I am a Jewish man from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no unimportant city. Now I ask you, allow me to speak to the people."

But when they had stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it permitted for you to flog a man [who is] a Roman citizen and uncondemned?"

And the military tribune replied, "I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money." And Paul said, "But I indeed was born [a citizen].

If then I am doing wrong and have done anything deserving death, I am not trying to avoid dying. But if there is nothing [true] of [the things] which these [people] are accusing me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!" Then Festus, [after] discussing [this] with [his] council, replied, "You have appealed to Caesar--to Caesar you will go!"