Setting Slaves Free
Slavery was a reality of the ancient world. But it was not to be perpetual. The Hebrew people were commanded to set their slaves free in the seventh year.
INTRODUCTION
The LORD God freed the Hebrew people from their own slavery in Egypt. Not long after that, they started to enslave other people.
They were exploiting the evil structure from which they had fled for their lives.
The LORD God intervened.
He commanded them to set all all their slaves free in the seventh year.
The slaves regained their freedom and were not property any more.
Liberty was restored.
BIBLE VERSES
Exodus 21:2. If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
Leviticus 25:39. If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
Leviticus 25:40. As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.
Leviticus 25:41. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers.
Deuteronomy 15:12. If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
Jeremiah 34:9. that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage. (NASB translation)
Jeremiah 34:14. At the end of seven years, every man of you shall release his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years. You shall let him go free from you; but your fathers didn’t listen to me, and didn’t incline their ear.
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.