Leviticus 25:37-43

25:37 You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit. 25:38 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan – to be your God.

25:39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. 25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. 25:42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. 25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.


tn Heb “your money” and “your food.” With regard to “interest” and “profit” see the note on v. 36 above.

tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”

tn Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.

tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

tn Heb “may go out from you.”

tn Heb “fathers.”

tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”