Exodus 21:1-6

Now notice this is in Exodus 21, which is just after Exodus 20 where the Ten Commandments are. And once you get into Exodus 21 this is the beginning of the Old Covenant. God is giving the laws that He wanted the Israelites to follow under the Old Covenant. And slavery is essentially the first thing that He mentions, that He broaches. So let us read verses 1 through 6 here.

So we see one set of laws here on how the Israelites were to deal with slavery and it is put right into the Old Covenant. Now, this makes a whole lot of sense that He would broach this immediately. Since He was making this covenant with newly-freed slaves, it was on their mind. They were probably thinking, "Have I just traded one master for another? And it's going to to be just as bad under God that it was under the Egyptian system." So He gives them a fair shake here when He describes how slavery will be dealt with within Israel.

It is: an Israelite slave can be made to serve only six years and he is supposed to be treated, not really as a slave, but as a hired servant. You might say, that is not much difference there. But generally they would treat a hired man or a hired woman much fairer than they would a slave. And that after his time was up, he was able to leave a free man and he would not have to pay anything for the price of his freedom. It says there in verse 2, "He shall go out free and pay nothing." Actually, for the times this was exceptionally liberal, you might call it exceptionally generous and fair.