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

"If you purchase a Hebrew slave, he is to work six years; but in the seventh, he is to be given his freedom without having to pay anything.

If he came single, he is to leave single; if he was married when he came, his wife is to go with him when he leaves.

But if his master gave him a wife, and she bore him sons or daughters, then the wife and her children will belong to her master, and he will leave by himself.

Nevertheless, if the slave declares, 'I love my master, my wife and my children, so I don't want to go free,'

then his master is to bring him before God; and there at the door or doorpost, his master is to pierce his ear with an awl; and the man will be his slave for life.

ADONAI said to Moshe,

"If someone sins and acts perversely against ADONAI by dealing falsely with his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him, by stealing from him, by extorting him,

then, if he sinned and is guilty, he is to restore whatever it was he stole or obtained by extortion, or whatever was deposited with him, or the lost object which he found,

or anything about which he has sworn falsely. He is to restore it in full plus an additional one-fifth; he must return it to the person who owns it, on the day when he presents his guilt offering.

He is to bring as his guilt offering to ADONAI a ram without defect from the flock, or its equivalent according to your appraisal, to the cohen; it is a guilt offering.

Thus the cohen will make atonement for him before ADONAI, and he will be forgiven in regard to whatever it was he did that made him guilty.

But when the inhabitants of Giv'ah heard what Y'hoshua had done to Yericho and 'Ai,

they developed a clever deception: they made themselves look as if they had been on a long journey by putting old sacks on their donkeys and taking used wineskins that had burst and been mended back together.

They put old, patched sandals on their feet and dressed in worn-out clothes; and took as provisions nothing but dried-up bread that was crumbling to pieces.

Then they went to Y'hoshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Isra'el, "We have come from a country far away. Now, make a covenant with us."

The men of Isra'el said to the Hivi, "How do we know that you don't live here among us? If you do, we don't want to make a covenant with you."

But they answered Y'hoshua, "We are your servants." Y'hoshua asked, "Who are you, and where do you come from?"

They answered him, "Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the reputation of ADONAI your God. We have heard reports about him - everything he did in Egypt,

so Y'hoshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to spare their lives, and the leading officials of the community swore to them.

But three days later, after they had made the covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, that they lived there with them.

The people of Isra'el did not attack them, because the leading officials of the community had sworn to them by ADONAI, the God of Isra'el; but all the community grumbled against the leaders.

However, the leaders replied to the whole community, "We have sworn to them by ADONAI, the God of Isra'el; so we can't touch them.

Here is what we will do to them: we will let them live, so that God's anger will not be on us because of the oath we swore to them.

Yes, let them live," the leaders continued, "but let them chop wood and draw water for the whole community." This is what the leaders said.

Y'hoshua summoned them and said this to them: "Why have you deceived us by saying, 'We come from a place very far away,' when in fact you are living right here with us?