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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.
45 Moreover you may buy athe children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property.  
46 And ayou may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.  
47 ‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family,
48 after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him;
49 or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself.
50 Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be aaccording to the time of a hired servant for him.  
51 If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought.
52 And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption.
53 He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.
54 And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him.
55 For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
<< Leviticus 25:38   Leviticus 25:40 >>


Leviticus 25:39-46

if thy brother . . . be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant—An Israelite might be compelled, through misfortune, not only to mortgage his inheritance, but himself. In the event of his being reduced to this distress, he was to be treated not as a slave, but a hired servant whose engagement was temporary, and who might, through the friendly aid of a relative, be redeemed at any time before the Jubilee. The ransom money was determined on a most equitable principle. Taking account of the number of years from the proposal to redeem and the Jubilee, of the current wages of labor for that time, and multiplying the remaining years by that sum, the amount was to be paid to the master for his redemption. But if no such friendly interposition was made for a Hebrew slave, he continued in servitude till the year of Jubilee, when, as a matter of course, he regained his liberty, as well as his inheritance. Viewed in the various aspects in which it is presented in this chapter, the Jubilee was an admirable institution, and subservient in an eminent degree to uphold the interests of religion, social order, and freedom among the Israelites.




Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Leviticus 25:39:

Deuteronomy 15:12
Jeremiah 34:9
Amos 8:6
Matthew 18:25

 

<< Leviticus 25:38   Leviticus 25:40 >>

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