Awl

The awl appears twice in the Torah, both times in the same legal context: the rite by which a Hebrew bondservant who refuses release at the seventh year is bound permanently to his master's household. The tool is the visible mark of that decision.

The Sign of Permanent Service

In the Exodus statute, a bondservant who declines his freedom is taken to the threshold of the household for a public act: "then his master will bring him to the gods, and will bring him to the door, or to the door-post; and his master will bore his ear through with an awl; and he will serve him forever" (Ex 21:6). UPDV's footnote clarifies that "gods" here means judges. The pierced ear, made at the doorway and sealed by the awl, fixes the servant to the house he has chosen.

Deuteronomy restates the rite in nearly the same terms and extends it to women: "then you will take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he will be your slave forever. And also to your female slave you will do likewise" (Dt 15:17). The awl is the only tool named in either statute, and it does the same work in both — turning a voluntary refusal of release into a lifelong bond.