Adam Clarke on Exodus 21:6

Shall bring him unto the judges - אל האלהים el haelohim, literally, to God; or, as the Septuagint have it, προς το κριτηριον Θεου, to the judgment of God; who condescended to dwell among his people; who determined all their differences till he had given them laws for all cases, and who, by his omniscience, brought to light the hidden things of dishonesty. See Exo 22:8.

Bore his ear through with an awl - This was a ceremony sufficiently significant, as it implied,

1. That he was closely attached to that house and family.

2. That he was bound to hear all his master's orders, and to obey them punctually. Boring of the ear was an ancient custom in the east. It is referred to by Juvenal: -

Prior, inquit, ego adsum.

Cur timeam, dubitemve locum defendere? Quamvis

Natus ad Euphraten, Molles quod in Aure Fenestrae

Arguerint, licet ipse negem.

Sat. i. 102. "First come, first served, he cries; and I, in spite

Of your great lordships, will maintain my right:

Though born a slave, though my torn Ears are Bored, 'Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the lord."

Dryden.

Calmet quotes a saying from Petronius as attesting the same thing; and one from Cicero, in which he rallies a Libyan who pretended he did not hear him: "It is not," said he, "because your ears are not sufficiently bored;" alluding to his having been a slave.