Leviticus 19:13

19:13 You must not oppress your neighbor or commit robbery against him. ¹  You must not withhold ²  the wages of the hired laborer overnight until morning.

Leviticus 25:39-46

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. ³  25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; ⁴  he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then ⁵  he may go free, ⁶  he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ⁷  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. ⁸  25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, ⁹  but you must fear your God.

25:44 “‘As for your male and female slaves ¹⁰  who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. ¹¹  25:45 Also you may buy slaves ¹²  from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are ¹³  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. ¹⁴ 

Deuteronomy 15:11-16

15:11 There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open ¹⁵  your hand to your fellow Israelites ¹⁶  who are needy and poor in your land.

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ¹⁷  – whether male or female ¹⁸  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ¹⁹  go free. ²⁰  15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously ²¹  from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress – as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them. 15:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing today. 15:16 However, if the servant ²²  says to you, “I do not want to leave ²³  you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,

Deuteronomy 24:14-15

24:14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites ²⁴  or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. ²⁵  24:15 You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Nehemiah 5:5

5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ²⁶  and our children are just like their children, ²⁷  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ²⁸  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ²⁹  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ³⁰ 

Nehemiah 5:8-9

5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ³¹  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ³²  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

5:9 Then I ³³  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ³⁴  Should you not conduct yourselves ³⁵  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

Job 24:10-12

24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,

and go hungry while they carry the sheaves. ³⁶ 

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; ³⁷ 

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. ³⁸ 

24:12 From the city the dying ³⁹  groan,

and the wounded ⁴⁰  cry out for help,

but God charges no one with wrongdoing. ⁴¹ 

Job 31:13-15

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants

when they disputed ⁴²  with me,

31:14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; ⁴³ 

when he intervenes, ⁴⁴ 

how will I respond to him?

31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? ⁴⁵ 

Did not the same one form us in the womb?

Isaiah 47:6

47:6 I was angry at my people;

I defiled my special possession

and handed them over to you.

You showed them no mercy; ⁴⁶ 

you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ⁴⁷ 

Isaiah 58:3-6

58:3 They lament, ⁴⁸  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ⁴⁹ 

you oppress your workers. ⁵⁰ 

58:4 Look, your fasting is accompanied by ⁵¹  arguments, brawls,

and fistfights. ⁵² 

Do not fast as you do today,

trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

58:5 Is this really the kind of fasting I want? ⁵³ 

Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, ⁵⁴ 

bowing their heads like a reed

and stretching out ⁵⁵  on sackcloth and ashes?

Is this really what you call a fast,

a day that is pleasing to the Lord?

58:6 No, this is the kind of fast I want. ⁵⁶ 

I want you ⁵⁷  to remove the sinful chains,

to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,

to set free the oppressed, ⁵⁸ 

and to break every burdensome yoke.

Amos 8:4-7

8:4 Listen to this, you who trample ⁵⁹  the needy,

and do away with ⁶⁰  the destitute in the land.

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival ⁶¹  be over, ⁶²  so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, ⁶³  so we can open up the grain bins? ⁶⁴ 

We’re eager ⁶⁵  to sell less for a higher price, ⁶⁶ 

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ⁶⁷ 

8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ⁶⁸ 

a pair of sandals ⁶⁹  for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ⁷⁰ 

8:7 The Lord confirms this oath ⁷¹  by the arrogance of Jacob: ⁷² 

“I swear ⁷³  I will never forget all you have done! ⁷⁴ 

Malachi 3:5

3:5 “I ⁷⁵  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ⁷⁶  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ⁷⁷  who refuse to help ⁷⁸  the immigrant ⁷⁹  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Colossians 4:1

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

James 5:4

5:4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

[19:13]  ¹ tn Heb “You shall not oppress your neighbor and you shall not rob.”

[19:13]  ² tn Heb “hold back with you”; perhaps “hold back for yourself” (cf. NRSV “keep for yourself”).

[25:39]  ³ 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.

[25:40]  ⁴ tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

[25:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

[25:41]  ⁶ tn Heb “may go out from you.”

[25:41]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[25:42]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

[25:43]  ⁹ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”

[25:44]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.

[25:44]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”

[25:45]  ¹² tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.

[25:45]  ¹³ tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).

[25:46]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”

[15:11]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “make sure.”

[15:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your brother.”

[15:12]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

[15:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.

[15:12]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

[15:14]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “generously.”

[15:16]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the indentured servant introduced in v. 12) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:16]  ²³ tn Heb “go out from.” The imperfect verbal form indicates the desire of the subject here.

[24:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “your brothers,” but not limited only to actual siblings; cf. NASB “your (+ own NAB) countrymen.”

[24:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “who are in your land in your gates.” The word “living” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

[5:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

[5:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

[5:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

[5:5]  ³⁰ 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).

[5:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

[5:8]  ³² tn Heb “your brothers.”

[5:9]  ³³ tc The translation reads with the Qere and the ancient versions וָאוֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the MT Kethib, וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).

[5:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “not good.” The statement “The thing…is not good” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression which emphasizes the intended point (“The thing…is wrong!”) by negating its opposite.

[5:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”

[24:10]  ³⁶ sn The point should not be missed – amidst abundant harvests, carrying sheaves about, they are still going hungry.

[24:11]  ³⁷ tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.

[24:11]  ³⁸ tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.

[24:12]  ³⁹ tc The MT as pointed reads “from the city of men they groan.” Most commentators change one vowel in מְתִים (mÿtim) to get מֵתִים (metim) to get the active participle, “the dying.” This certainly fits the parallelism better, although sense could be made out of the MT.

[24:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the souls of the wounded,” which here refers to the wounded themselves.

[24:12]  ⁴¹ tc The MT has the noun תִּפְלָה (tiflah) which means “folly; tastelessness” (cf. 1:22). The verb, which normally means “to place; to put,” would then be rendered “to impute; to charge.” This is certainly a workable translation in the context. Many commentators have emended the text, changing the noun to תְּפִלָּה (tÿfillah, “prayer”), and so then also the verb יָשִׂים (yasim, here “charges”) to יִשְׁמַע (yishma’, “hears”). It reads: “But God does not hear the prayer” – referring to the groans.

[31:13]  ⁴² tn This construction is an adverbial clause using the temporal preposition, the infinitive from רִיב (riv, “contend”), and the suffix which is the subjective genitive.

[31:14]  ⁴³ tn Heb “arises.” The LXX reads “takes vengeance,” an interpretation that is somewhat correct but unnecessary. The verb “to rise” would mean “to confront in judgment.”

[31:14]  ⁴⁴ tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” but with God as the subject it means any divine intervention for blessing or cursing, anything God does that changes a person’s life. Here it is “visit to judge.”

[31:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “him,” but the plural pronoun has been used in the translation to indicate that the referent is the servants mentioned in v. 13 (since the previous “him” in v. 14 refers to God).

[47:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “compassion.”

[47:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “on the old you made very heavy your yoke.”

[58:3]  ⁴⁸ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ⁵⁰ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[58:4]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “you fast for” (so NASB); NRSV “you fast only to quarrel.”

[58:4]  ⁵² tn Heb “and for striking with a sinful fist.”

[58:5]  ⁵³ tn Heb “choose” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “wish.”

[58:5]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “a day when man humbles himself.” The words “Do I want” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:5]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “making [their] bed.”

[58:6]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “Is this not a fast I choose?” “No” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:6]  ⁵⁷ tn The words “I want you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:6]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “crushed.”

[8:4]  ⁵⁹ tn See the note on the word “trample” in 2:7.

[8:4]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “put an end to”; or “exterminate.”

[8:5]  ⁶¹ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ⁶² tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ⁶³ tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ⁶⁵ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “to make small the ephah and to make great the shekel.” The “ephah” was a unit of dry measure used to determine the quantity purchased, while the “shekel” was a standard weight used to determine the purchase price. By using a smaller than standard ephah and a heavier than standard shekel, these merchants were able to increase their profit (“sell less for a higher price”) by cheating the buyer.

[8:5]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”

[8:6]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”

[8:6]  ⁶⁹ tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6.

[8:6]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.”

[8:7]  ⁷¹ tn Or “swears.”

[8:7]  ⁷² sn In an oath one appeals to something permanent to emphasize one’s commitment to the promise. Here the Lord sarcastically swears by the arrogance of Jacob, which he earlier had condemned (6:8), something just as enduring as the Lord’s own life (see 6:8) or unchanging character (see 4:2). Other suggestions include that the Lord is swearing by the land, his most valuable possession (cf. Isa 4:2; Ps 47:4 [47:5 HT]); that this is a divine epithet analogous to “the Glory of Israel” (1 Sam 15:29); or that an ellipsis should be understood here, in which case the meaning is the same as that of 6:8 (“The Lord has sworn [by himself] against the arrogance of Jacob”).

[8:7]  ⁷³ tn The words “I swear” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation because a self-imprecation is assumed in oaths of this type.

[8:7]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “I will never forget all your deeds.”

[3:5]  ⁷⁵ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”