Leviticus 25:46

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.

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.

(46) And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children. —That is, they may appropriate them to themselves, as their personal property, which is transmissible as inheritance to posterity with the family land. They shall be your bondmen for ever.—These are not subject to the laws of jubile. They remain in perpetual serfdom unless they or their friends redeem them, or their master has maimed any one of them. In case of injury the master is obliged to manumit him (Exodus 21:26-27). The authorities during the second Temple enacted that the master’s right, even with regard to this kind of bondmen, is restricted to their labour, but that he has no right to barter with them, to misuse them, or to put them to shame. Over your brethren . . . ye shall not rule . . . with rigour.—In contrast to these heathen bondmen the Jewish bondmen are here designated “brethren.” They are co-religionists, who have been reduced to temporary servitude, but who are, nevertheless, fellow-heirs with them in the land of their possession. Hence the greatest consideration was to be shown to them in these adverse circumstances. The authorities during the second Temple have therefore enacted that there must be no difference between the daily food, raiment, and dwelling of the master and his Hebrew slave, and that the master and the servant are alike in these respects.

As the Israelites could only hold in slavery servants and maid-servants whom they had bought of foreign nations, or foreigners who had settled in the land, these they might leave as an inheritance to their children, and "through them they might work," i.e., have slave-labour performed, but not through their brethren the children of Israel ( Leviticus 25:46 , cf. Leviticus 25:43 ).

They were rather the preamble, as Calvin says, by which God prepared the minds of the people for obeying them, and in this sense they were frequently repeated to give emphasis to other laws, sometimes in full, as in Exodus 29:46 ; Leviticus 19:36 ; Leviticus 23:43 ; Leviticus 25:38 , Leviticus 25:55 ; Leviticus 26:13 , etc., sometimes in the abridged form, "I am Jehovah your God," as in Leviticus 11:44 ; Leviticus 18:2 , Leviticus 18:4 , Leviticus 18:30 ; Leviticus 19:4 , Leviticus 19:10 , Leviticus 19:25 , Leviticus 19:31 , Leviticus 19:34 ; Leviticus 20:7 , etc., for which the simple expression, "I am Jehovah," is now and then substituted, as in Leviticus 19:12-13 , Leviticus 19:16 , Leviticus 19:18 , etc.

[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

13 . with rigour ] The rare word found otherwise only in v. 14, Leviticus 25:43 ; Leviticus 25:46 ; Leviticus 25:53 (all P or H); Ezekiel 34:4 . The root is not in use in Heb.; in Aram. it means to rub ( Luke 6:1 Pesh.), or crush small . 13, 14 . The parallel, from P, to vv. 11, 12, and continuation of v. 7. P states simply the fact of the oppression, without referring to the grounds prompting it.

According to these, נחלה signifies that which is weak in consequence of sickness, and חלה that which is weak in itself. נשׁבּרת, literally, that which is broken, an animal with a leg or some other member injured. נדּח, scattered, as in Deuteronomy 22:1. In the last clause of Ezekiel 34:4, the neglect of the flock is summed up in the positive expression, to rule over them with violence and severity. רדה בפרך is taken from Leviticus 25:43, Leviticus 25:46; but there as well as here it points back to Exodus 1:13-14, where בפרך is applied to the tyrannical measures adopted by Pharaoh for the oppression of the Israelites. The result of this (Ezekiel 34:5, Ezekiel 34:6) was, that the sheep were scattered, and became food to the beasts of prey. מבּלי, on account of there not being a shepherd, i.e., because there was no shepherd worthy of the name. This took place when Israel was carried away into exile, where it became a prey to the heathen nations. When we find this mournful fate of the people described as brought about by the bad shepherds, and attributable to faults of theirs, we must not regard the words as applying merely to the mistaken policy of the kings with regard to external affairs (Hitzig); for this was in itself simply a consequence of their neglect of their theocratic calling, and of their falling away from the Lord into idolatry.