Leviticus 25:40-43

25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; ¹  he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then ²  he may go free, ³  he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ⁴  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. ⁵  25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, ⁶  but you must fear your God.

¹ tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

³ tn Heb “may go out from you.”

⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁵ tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

⁶ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”