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Leviticus 25:39
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37 You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.
38 aI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.  

The Law Concerning Slavery

39 ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.
40 As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee.
41 And then he shall depart from you—he and his children awith him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers.  
42 For they are aMy servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.  
43 aYou shall not rule over him bwith rigor, but you cshall fear your God.  
44 And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
Commentaries:


No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Leviticus 25:39.

Leviticus 25:39-44

That is all I really want there. Just to give you a little bit of a taste of the way God regulated slavery at the time.

Like I said, this gives you a kind of a taste of how God wanted to regulate this institution within the nation of Israel. So, an Israelite slave had to be treated as a hired servant and he could leave a free man after his time of service. No slave, whatever the case, could be made to serve more than 49 years. Until the next Jubilee, when all were to be set free, all were to be given liberty. Moreover, when an Israelite slave was freed, his master had to give him animals and grain and wine liberally— load him down with these things so that he could get a fresh start. But the institution itself was not abolished. He worked within it.

Excerpted from Titus (Part Five): A Church in Training

 
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