Keluaran 21:2

Hebrew Servants

21:2 ¹ “If you buy ²  a Hebrew servant, ³  he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free ⁴  without paying anything. ⁵ 

Imamat 25:10

25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, ⁶  and you must proclaim a release ⁷  in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; ⁸  each one of you must return ⁹  to his property and each one of you must return to his clan.

Imamat 25:39-41

25:39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. ¹⁰  25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; ¹¹  he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then ¹²  he may go free, ¹³  he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ¹⁴ 

Nehemia 5:5-8

5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹⁵  and our children are just like their children, ¹⁶  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ¹⁷  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ¹⁸  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ¹⁹ 

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. ²⁰  5:7 I considered these things carefully ²¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ²³  from your own countrymen!” ²⁴  Because of them I called for ²⁵  a great public assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ²⁶  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ²⁷  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

[21:2]  ¹ sn See H. L. Elleson, “The Hebrew Slave: A Study in Early Israelite Society,” EvQ 45 (1973): 30-35; N. P. Lemche, “The Manumission of Slaves – The Fallow Year – The Sabbatical Year – The Jobel Year,” VT 26 (1976): 38-59, and “The ‘Hebrew Slave,’ Comments on the Slave Law – Ex. 21:2-11,” VT 25 (1975): 129-44.

[21:2]  ² tn The verbs in both the conditional clause and the following ruling are imperfect tense: “If you buy…then he will serve.” The second imperfect tense (the ruling) could be taken either as a specific future or an obligatory imperfect. Gesenius explains how the verb works in the conditional clauses here (see GKC 497 §159.bb).

[21:2]  ³ sn The interpretation of “Hebrew” in this verse is uncertain: (l) a gentilic ending, (2) a fellow Israelite, (3) or a class of mercenaries of the population (see W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:431). It seems likely that the term describes someone born a Hebrew, as opposed to a foreigner (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 210). The literature on this includes: M. P. Gray, “The Habiru-Hebrew Problem,” HUCA 29 (1958): 135-202.

[21:2]  ⁴ sn The word חָפְשִׁי (khofshi) means “free.” It is possible that there is some connection between this word and a technical term used in other cultures for a social class of emancipated slaves who were freemen again (see I. Mendelsohn, “New Light on the Hupsu,” BASOR 139 [1955]: 9-11).

[21:2]  ⁵ tn The adverb חִנָּם (hinnam) means “gratis, free”; it is related to the verb “to be gracious, show favor” and the noun “grace.”

[25:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

[25:10]  ⁷ tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

[25:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

[25:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

[25:39]  ¹⁰ tn 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.

[25:40]  ¹¹ tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

[25:41]  ¹² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

[25:41]  ¹³ tn Heb “may go out from you.”

[25:41]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

[5:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

[5:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

[5:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

[5:5]  ¹⁹ sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).

[5:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “words.”

[5:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

[5:7]  ²² tn Heb “nobles.”

[5:7]  ²³ tn Heb “taking a creditor’s debt.” The Hebrew noun מַשָּׁא (masha’) means “interest; debt” and probably refers to the collateral (pledge) collected by a creditor (HALOT 641-42 s.v.). This particular noun form appears only in Nehemiah (5:7, 10; 10:32); however, it is related to מַשָּׁאָה (masha’ah, “contractual loan; debt; collateral”) which appears elsewhere (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; cf. Neh 5:11). See the note on the word “people” at the end of v. 5. The BHS editors suggest emending the MT to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”), following several medieval Hebrew MSS; however, the result is not entirely clear: “you are bearing a burden, a man with his brothers.”

[5:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[5:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I gave.”

[5:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

[5:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your brothers.”