When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.  If he came single, he shall leave single; if he had a wife, his wife shall leave with him.  If his master gave him a wife, and she has borne him children, the wife and her children shall belong to the master, and he shall leave alone.  But if the slave declares, “I love my master, and my wife and children: I do not wish to go free,” his master shall take him before God.  He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall then remain his slave for life.

Rashi, on this text:

For life:  This means until the Jubilee year.  Or perhaps not, but it actually means forever, in its usual meaning.  However, the Torah teaches “And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; and you shall return every man unto his family.” (Leviticus 25:10).  This teaches us that fifty years means “for life”; not that a slave has to serve his master the whole fifty years, but he has to serve until the fiftieth year, whether this be close at hand or far away.”

A word:

Why might someone choose continued servitude over freedom?

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