Deuteronomy 15:12

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ¹  – whether male or female ²  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ³  go free. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 16:14

16:14 You are to rejoice in your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who are in your villages. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 5:14

5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath ⁶  of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, ⁷  so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest.

Deuteronomy 12:18

12:18 Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he ⁸  chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites ⁹  in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 16:11

16:11 You shall rejoice before him ¹¹  – you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, ¹²  the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you – in the place where the Lord chooses to locate his name.

[15:12]  ¹ sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.

[15:12]  ² tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

[15:12]  ³ tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.

[15:12]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

[16:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “in your gates.”

[5:14]  ⁹ tn There is some degree of paronomasia (wordplay) here: “the seventh (הַשְּׁבִיעִי, hashÿvi’i) day is the Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbat).” Otherwise, the words have nothing in common, since “Sabbath” is derived from the verb שָׁבַת (shavat, “to cease”).

[5:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in your gates”; NRSV, CEV “in your towns”; TEV “in your country.”

[12:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:18]  ¹⁴ tn See note at Deut 12:12.

[12:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in all the sending forth of your hands.”

[16:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gates.”