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

If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.

But if his master gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daughters; the woman and her children shall be her master's: but he himself shall go out with his raiment.

And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:

His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his servant for ever.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Whosoever shall sin, and despising the Lord, shall deny to his neighbour the thing delivered to his keeping, which was committed to his trust; or shall by force extort any thing, or commit oppression;

Being convicted of the offence, he shall restore

All that he would have gotten by fraud, in the principal, and the fifth part besides, to the owner, whom he wronged.

Moreover for his sin he shall offer a ram without blemish out of the flock: and shall give it to the priest, according to the estimation and measure of the offence.

And he shall pray for him before the Lord: and he shall have forgiveness for every thing in doing of which he bath sinned.

But they that dwelt in Gabaon, hearing all that Joshua had done to Jericho and Hai:

Cunningly devising took for themselves provisions, laying old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles rent and sewed up again,

And very old shoes, which for a show of age were clouted with patches, and old garments upon them: the loaves also, which they carried for provisions by the way, were hard, and broken into pieces:

And they went to Joshua, who then abode in the camp at Galgal, and said to him, and to all Israel with him: We are come from a far country, desiring to make peace with you. And the children of Israel answered them, and said:

Perhaps you dwell in the land which falls to our lot; if so, we can make no league with you.

But they said to Joshua: We are thy servants. Joshua said to them: Who are you? and whence came you?

They answered: From a very far country thy servants are come in the name of the Lord thy God. For we have heard the fame of his power, all the things that he did in Egypt.

And Joshua made peace with them, and entering into a league, promised that they should not be slain: the princes also of the multitude swore to them.

Now three days after the league was made, they heard that they dwelt nigh, and they should be among them.

And they slew them not, because the princes of the multitude had sworn in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. Then all the common people murmured against the princes.

And they answered them: We have sworn to them in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, and therefore we may not touch them.

But this we will do to them: Let their lives be saved, lest the wrath of the Lord be stirred up against us, if we should be forsworn:

But so let them live, as to serve the whole multitude in hewing wood, and bringing in water. As they were speaking these things,

Josue called the Gabaonites and said to them: Why would you impose upon us, saying: We dwell far off from you, whereas you are in the midst of us?