Exodus 23:12

23:12 For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant’s son and any hired help ¹  may refresh themselves. ² 

Leviticus 25:44-46

25:44 “‘As for your male and female slaves ³  who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. ⁴  25:45 Also you may buy slaves ⁵  from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are ⁶  with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. 25:46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. ⁷ 

Nehemiah 5:5

5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ⁸  and our children are just like their children, ⁹  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ¹⁰  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ¹¹  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “alien,” or “resident foreigner.” Such an individual would have traveled out of need and depended on the goodwill of the people around him. The rendering “hired help” assumes that the foreigner is mentioned in this context because he is working for an Israelite and will benefit from the Sabbath rest, along with his employer.

² tn The verb is וְיִּנָּפֵשׁ (vÿyyinnafesh); it is related to the word usually translated “soul” or “life.”

³ tn Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.

⁴ tn Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”

⁵ tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.

⁶ tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).

⁷ tn Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”

⁸ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

⁹ tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

¹¹ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

¹² 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).