Lev 25:39-55 | NETfull | STEP | “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service.

Leviticus 25:39-55

39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. ^{▼▼ Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.} 40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; ^{▼▼ See the note on Lev 25:6 above.} he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 41 but then ^{▼▼ Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.} he may go free, ^{▼▼ Heb “may go out from you.”} he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ^{▼▼ Heb “fathers.”} 42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. ^{▼▼ Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”} 43 You must not rule over him harshly, ^{▼▼ Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”} but you must fear your God.

44 “‘As for your male and female slaves ^{▼▼ Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.} who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. ^{▼▼ Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”} 45 Also you may buy slaves ^{▼▼ The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.} from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are ^{▼▼ Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).} with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. 46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. ^{▼▼ Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”}

47 “‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers ^{▼▼ Heb “And if the hand of a foreigner and resident with you reaches” (cf. v. 26 for this idiom).} and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that ^{▼▼ Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.} he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member ^{▼▼ Heb “offshoot, descendant.”} of a foreigner’s family, 48 after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. ^{▼▼ Heb “right of redemption shall be to him.”} One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin ^{▼▼ Heb “the son of his uncle.”} may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives – his family ^{▼▼ Heb “or from the remainder of his flesh from his family.”} – may redeem him, or if ^{▼▼ The LXX, followed by the Syriac, actually has “if,” which is not in the MT.} he prospers he may redeem himself. 50 He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years ^{▼▼ Heb “the years.”} from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. ^{▼▼ Heb “as days of a hired worker he shall be with him.” For this and the following verses see the explanation in P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 358–59.} 51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them ^{▼▼ Heb “to the mouth of them.”} he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption, 52 but if only a few years remain ^{▼▼ Heb “but if a little remains in the years.”} until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption. 53 He must be with the one who bought him ^{▼▼ Heb “be with him”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.} like a yearly hired worker. ^{▼▼ Heb “As a hired worker year in year.”} The one who bought him ^{▼▼ Heb “He”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.} must not rule over him harshly in your sight. 54 If, however, ^{▼▼ Heb “And if.”} he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free ^{▼▼ Heb “go out.”} in the jubilee year, he and his children with him, 55 because the Israelites are my own servants; ^{▼▼ Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”} they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.