Keluaran 21:20-21

21:20 “If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she ¹  dies as a result of the blow, ²  he will surely be punished. ³  21:21 However, if the injured servant ⁴  survives one or two days, the owner ⁵  will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss. ⁶ 

Keluaran 21:26-27

21:26 “If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, ⁷  he will let the servant ⁸  go free ⁹  as compensation for the eye. 21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant ¹⁰  go free as compensation for the tooth.

Imamat 25:43

25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, ¹¹  but you must fear your God.

Imamat 25:46

25:46 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. ¹² 

Ulangan 15:12-15

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ¹³  – whether male or female ¹⁴  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ¹⁵  go free. ¹⁶  15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously ¹⁷  from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress – as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them. 15:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing today.

Yeremia 34:14-17

34:14 “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” ¹⁸  But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me. 34:15 Recently, however, you yourselves ¹⁹  showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. ²⁰  34:16 But then you turned right around ²¹  and showed that you did not honor me. ²²  Each of you took back your male and female slaves whom you had freed as they desired, and you forced them to be your slaves again. ²³  34:17 So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. ²⁴  Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom ²⁵  to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! ²⁶  I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. ²⁷ 

Efesus 6:9

6:9 Masters, ²⁸  treat your slaves ²⁹  the same way, ³⁰  giving up the use of threats, ³¹  because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, ³²  and there is no favoritism with him.

Kolose 4:1

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

[21:20]  ¹ tn Heb “so that he”; the words “or she” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:20]  ² tn Heb “under his hand.”

[21:20]  ³ tn Heb “will be avenged” (how is not specified).

[21:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “if he”; the referent (the servant struck and injured in the previous verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner of the injured servant) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[21:21]  ⁶ tn This last clause is a free paraphrase of the Hebrew, “for he is his money” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “his property.” It seems that if the slave survives a couple of days, it is probable that the master was punishing him and not intending to kill him. If he then dies, there is no penalty other than that the owner loses the slave who is his property – he suffers the loss.

[21:26]  ⁷ tn The form וְשִׁחֲתָהּ (vÿshikhatah) is the Piel perfect with the vav (ל) consecutive, rendered “and destroys it.” The verb is a strong one, meaning “to ruin, completely destroy.”

[21:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:26]  ⁹ sn Interestingly, the verb used here for “let him go” is the same verb throughout the first part of the book for “release” of the Israelites from slavery. Here, an Israelite will have to release the injured slave.

[21:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:43]  ¹¹ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”

[25:46]  ¹² tn Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”

[15:12]  ¹³ sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.

[15:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

[15:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.

[15:12]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

[15:14]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “generously.”

[34:14]  ¹⁸ sn Compare Deut 15:12-18 for the complete statement of this law. Here only the first part of it is cited.

[34:15]  ¹⁹ tn The presence of the independent pronoun in the Hebrew text is intended to contrast their actions with those of their ancestors.

[34:15]  ²⁰ sn This refers to the temple. See Jer 7:10, 11, 14, 30 and see the translator’s note on 7:10 and the study note on 10:25 for the explanation of the idiom involved here.

[34:16]  ²¹ sn The verb at the beginning of v. 15 and v. 16 are the same in the Hebrew. They had two changes of heart (Heb “you turned”), one that was pleasing to him (Heb “right in his eyes”) and one that showed they did not honor him (Heb “profaned [or belittled] his name”).

[34:16]  ²² sn Heb “you profaned my name.” His name had been invoked in the oath confirming the covenant. Breaking the covenant involved taking his name in vain (cf. Exod 20:7; Deut 5:11; Jer 5:2). Hence the one who bore the name was not treated with the special honor and reverence due him (see the study note on 23:27 for the significance of “name” in the OT).

[34:16]  ²³ tn Heb “and you brought them into subjection to be to you for male and female slaves.” See the translator’s note on v. 11 for the same redundant repetition which is not carried over into the contemporary English sentence.

[34:17]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text has a compound object, the two terms of which have been synonyms in vv. 14, 15. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 189) make the interesting observation that these two terms (Heb “brother” and “neighbor”) emphasize the relationships that should have taken precedence over their being viewed as mere slaves.

[34:17]  ²⁵ sn This is, of course, a metaphorical and ironical use of the term “to grant freedom to.” It is, however, a typical statement of the concept of talionic justice which is quite often operative in God’s judgments in the OT (cf., e.g., Obad 15).

[34:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:17]  ²⁷ sn Compare Jer 15:4; 24:9; 29:18.

[6:9]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:9]  ²⁹ tn Though the Greek text only has αὐτούς (autous, “them”), the antecedent is the slaves of the masters. Therefore, it was translated this way to make it explicit in English.

[6:9]  ³⁰ tn Grk “do the same things to them.”

[6:9]  ³¹ tn Grk “giving up the threat.”

[6:9]  ³² tn Grk “because of both they and you, the Lord is, in heaven…”