Bible Verses About Contracts: Scriptures illustrative of the binding force of

If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.

If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him.

If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’

then his master is to bring him before the judges. And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

And the LORD said to Moses,

“If someone sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him or stolen, or if he extorts his neighbor

once he has sinned and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or the deposit entrusted to him, or the lost property he found,

or anything else about which he has sworn falsely. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value, and pay it to the owner on the day he acknowledges his guilt.

Then he must bring to the priest his guilt offering to the LORD: an unblemished ram of proper value from the flock.

In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for anything he may have done to incur guilt.”

But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

They put worn, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies, and their whole supply of bread was dry and moldy.

They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land; please make a treaty with us.”

But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell near us. How can we make a treaty with you?”

“We are your servants,” they said to Joshua. Then Joshua asked them, “Who are you and where have you come from?”

“Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,

And Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

Three days after they had made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites learned that they were neighbors, living among them.

But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders.

All the leaders answered, “We have sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them.

This is how we will treat them: We will let them live, so that no wrath will fall on us because of the oath we swore to them.”

They continued, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for the whole congregation.” So the leaders kept their promise.

Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you deceive us by telling us you live far away from us, when in fact you live among us?