Then his master shall bring him unto the judges— If the servant refused to be free, he was to be brought to the judges, אלהים elohim, gods, in the original; magistrates being so called, as the visible representatives of God upon earth. Psalms 1:6. John 10:34.Romans 13:1. The LXX render it προς το κριτηριον θεου, to the judgment of God; by which they mean, most probably, the sanctuary and oracle: but the true meaning seems to be, that the master was to bring his slave to the temporal judges, that they might take proper cognizance of the case; which done, he was to bring the servant to the door, or door-post of his house, Deuteronomy 15:16-17 and there bore through his ear with an awl, in token of perpetual slavery. The word for ever, signifies to the end of his life; the man having refused the advantage of the day of jubilee, and willingly submitting himself to a life of slavery. This custom of boring the ears of servants is alluded to in Psalms 40:6 and implied the servant's constant obligation to hearken to his master's orders. The custom lasted a long time in Syria and Arabia, as appears from Juvenal, Sat. i. 159 who makes a Syrian slave speak thus:
"Though born a slave, though my torn ears are bor'd, 'Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the Lord."
And Petronius says, pertunde aures, ut imitemur Arabes; bore the ears, that we may imitate the Arabs. This custom of boring the ears of slaves is still usual in the East Indies, and in various other parts, and has from thence been derived even to whole nations, who have made the original mark of servitude a badge of honour, by wearing large rings in their ears. See Xenophon's Sympos. lib. 2: cap. 1.