Leviticus 25:43

25:39-55 A native Israelite, if sold for debt, or for a crime, was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh. If he sold himself, through poverty, both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col 4:1. At the year of jubilee the servant should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family. This typified redemption from the service of sin and Satan, by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, Joh 8:32. We cannot ransom our fellow-sinners, but we may point out Christ to them; while by his grace our lives may adorn his gospel, express our love, show our gratitude, and glorify his holy name.

Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour,.... As the Egyptians ruled over the Israelites, and made them to serve, Exodus 1:13 ; where the same word is used as here, and seems designed to put them in mind of it, that so they might abstain from such usage of their brethren, which they had met with from their most cruel enemies; it signifies tyranny and oppression, treating them with great severity, laying hard and heavy tasks and burdens upon them they could not bear; enjoining them things they could not perform, and ordering them to do what were unnecessary, and without any limitation with respect to time: but shalt fear thy God; that has been good to thee, and has brought thee out of hard and rigorous bondage in Egypt; and which should be remembered with thankfulness, and they should fear to offend so good a God by using a brother cruelly.

Verse 43. - Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God, is paralleled by the New Testament injunction, "And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him" ( Ephesians 6:9 ). Leviticus 25:43

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.

Because the Israelites were servants of Jehovah, who had redeemed them out of Pharaoh's bondage and adopted them as His people ( Exodus 19:5 ; Exodus 18:10 , etc.), they were not to be sold "a selling of slaves," i.e., not to be sold into actual slavery, and no one of them was to rule over another with severity ( Leviticus 25:43 , cf. Exodus 1:13-14 ). "Through this principle slavery was completely abolished, so far as the people of the theocracy were concerned"' (Oehler).

[Bible] 25:31. But if the house be in a village, that hath no walls, it shall be sold according to the same law as the fields. If it be not redeemed before, in the jubilee it shall return to the owner. 25:32. The houses of Levites, which are in cities, may always be redeemed. 25:33. If they be not redeemed, in the jubilee they shall all return to the owners: because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possessions among the children of Israel. 25:34. But let not their suburbs be sold, because it is a perpetual possession. 25:35. If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee: 25:36. Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest. Fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. 25:37. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury: nor exact of him any increase of fruits. 25:38. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might give you the land of Chanaan, and might be your God. 25:39. If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee: thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants. 25:40. But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee. 25:41. And afterwards he shall go out with his children: and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers. 25:42. For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen. 25:43. Afflict him not by might: but fear thy God. 25:44. Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are round about you: 25:45. And of the strangers that sojourn among you, or that were born of them in your land. These you shall have for servants: 25:46. And by right of inheritance shall leave them to your posterity, and shall possess them for ever. But oppress not your brethren the children of Israel by might.

[Reformed Biblical] inds of usury are in this case forbidden, whether of money , or of victuals , or of any thing that is commonly lent by one man to another upon usury , or upon condition of receiving the thing lent with advantage and overplus, as it is said Deu_23:19. Leviticus 25:37 Leviticus 25:38 Leviticus 25:39 Neither for the time, for ever, nor for the manner, with the hardest and vilest kinds of service, rigorously and severely exacted from him. Leviticus 25:40 Leviticus 25:41 ## Then shall he depart from thee; thou shalt not suffer him or his to abide longer in thy service, as thou mightest do in the year of release, Exo_21:2,6. Leviticus 25:42 ## They are my servants; they, no less than you, are members of my church and people; such as I have chosen out of all the world to serve me here, and to enjoy me hereafter, and therefore are not to be oppressed or abused, neither are you absolute lords over them, to deal with them as you please. Leviticus 25:43 Though thou dost not fear them who are in thy power, and unable to right themselves, yet fear that God who hath commanded thee to use them kindly, and who can and will avenge their cause, if thou dost oppress them. Leviticus 25:44 Leviticus 25:45 Leviticus 25:46 Leviticus 25:47 ## The stock, Heb. root , i.e. one of the root or stock. So the word root is elsewhere used for the branch or progeny growing from it, as Num_13:28 2Ch_22:10. He seems to note one of a foreign race and country

Moreover of the children of them that dwell as sojourners with you, of them may ye buy, and of their family that is with you, which they beget in your land, and they shall be your possession. And ye shall leave them as an inheritance to your children after you, to inherit them as a possession: these may ye make your bondmen for ever; but as for your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigour. And if a stranger or sojourner become wealthy beside thee, and thy brother beside him grow poor, and sell himself unto the stranger, who is settled by thee, or to a scion of the stranger`s family, after that he is sold there shall be right of redemption for him; one of his brethren may redeem him. Either his uncle or his uncle`s son may redeem him, or one of his next relations of his family may redeem him; or if his means be sufficient, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of the years, according to the days of a hired servant shall he be with him. If there are yet many years, according unto them shall he return his redemption [money] out of the money that he was bought for; and if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his [remaining] years [of service] shall he give him back his redemption [money].