“ ‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
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Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
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And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou mayest have: of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (1)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Leviticus 25:44 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 12:44 but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.
- Psalms 2:8-9 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
- Isaiah 14:1-2 For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob. The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
- Revelation 2:26-27 He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father:
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lev 25:44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which…
Lev 25:44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, [shall be] of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
Ver. 44. Both thy bondmen.] Reprobates might be hereby figured.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt…
Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have,.... Such it seems were allowed them, if they had need of them; but if they had them, they were to be not of the nation of Israel, but of other nations; this is an anticipation of an objection, as Jarchi observes; if so, who shall I have to minister to me? The answer follows, they
shall be of the heathen that are round about thee, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids; that is, of the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Syrians, as Aben Ezra, that were their neighbours, that lived round about them, of any but the seven nations, which they were ordered utterly to destroy; wherefore Jarchi observes it is said, "that are round about thee"; not in the midst of the border of your land, for them they were not to save alive, Deu 20:16.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Property in foreign slaves is here distinctly permitted. It…
Property in foreign slaves is here distinctly permitted. It was a patriarchal custom Gen 17:12. Such slaves might be captives taken in war (Num 31:6 following; Deu 20:14), or those consigned to slavery for their crimes, or those purchased of foreign slave-dealers. The price of a slave is supposed to have varied from thirty to fifty shekels. See Lev 27:3-4, note; Exo 21:32, note; Zec 11:12-13, note; Mat 26:15, note. It was the object of Moses, not at once to do away with slavery, but to discourage and to mitigate it. The Law would not suffer it to be forgotten that the slave was a man, and protected him in every way that was possible at the time against the injustice or cruelty of his master. See the notes at Exo. 21.
Lev 25:46
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Your bondmen forever - i. e. they were not necessarily to be released in the sabbatical year nor at the Jubilee.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain NON-HEBREW SERVANTS, Lev_25:44-46.
NON-HEBREW SERVANTS, Lev_25:44-46.
44. Of the heathen… shall ye buy bondmen — Literally, man-servants and maid-servants. The “shall” is not mandatory but permissive. “Such purchase and adoption into Hebrew families was an appointed redemption from a worse state. There could not, consequently, be any sentiment of injustice, under this revealed will of God, in regard to the purchase from heathen masters of servants possessed by them as slaves, and treated as such, since they were brought from an irresponsible, unlimited slavery into a system of guardianship, protection, religious instruction, and family and national privileges. The children of such would be circumcised, adopted, and become sons of the house. In no other way than by purchase could the Hebrews redeem them, even if they had started on the emancipation of the nations. If they had been forbidden to buy, and had been restricted to hired servants of their own race alone, they could not have gotten possession of heathen slaves, even to redeem them, except as runaways; and thus multitudes would have been kept in heathen bondage, who, the moment they passed into Hebrew bondage, passed into a state of comparative freedom.” — Dr. Cheever. The Hebrew construction of these words is not “ye shall purchase of the nations,” but of the servants that have come to you from among those nations. A slave-market was never known in Palestine, nor a slave-trader.
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Heathen… round about — These words exclude the Canaanite tribes in the land, who had been doomed to complete extermination. Deu_20:16-19. But since this sentence was not executed, the remnants were subjected to compulsory service. Jdg_1:28; Jdg_1:30, note.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (44) Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou…
(44) Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen.—Rather, As for thy bondmen and bondmaids which thou must have of the heathen, &c. As the Law forbids the Israelites to have their brethren as bondmen, or employ them in menial work which belongs to the slaves, the Lawgiver anticipates a difficulty which the Hebrews might raise against these enactments. If they are not to be engaged in this work, who then is to do it? Hence the reply in the verse before us.
Of the heathen that are round about you.—These are to be purchased to do the necessary work. The Israelites, however, were restricted to the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, and the Syrians, who were their neighbours, but were not permitted to buy any slaves from the seven nations who were in the midst of them, and whom they were ordered to destroy (Deu_20:16-18).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 44-46. Slavery is not forbidden in respect to…
Vers. 44-46. Slavery is not forbidden in respect to non-Israelites. The world was not yet ready for it, as it was not ready in the days of St. Paul.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 25:44-46 Slaves in Mesopotamia and Egypt were little more…
25:44-46 Slaves in Mesopotamia and Egypt were little more than chattel, with no protection or rights. Israelites were allowed to purchase non-Israelites as slaves, but they were to be treated well and not abused. Occasionally some slaves were even adopted into childless families (Gen 15:2-4). Slavery continued into New Testament times, but the foundations had been laid for its dissolution in the Old Testament doctrine of the common origins of all humankind through God. Slavery stemmed from the Fall, when relationships based on power replaced those of fellowship and communication (see Gen 3:16). In the New Testament, believers uphold the ideas of fellowship and communication by accepting the title “Christ’s slave” or “servant” (Rom 1:1; Col 4:12; 2 Pet 1:1). In Paul’s doctrine of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 4:12), all believers acquired a common identity (Gal 3:28; Col 3:11; Phlm 1:16).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.