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.

Leviticus 25:45

25:45 Also you may buy slaves ⁷  from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are ⁸  with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.

Deuteronomy 15:1

Release for Debt Slaves

15:1 At the end of every seven years you must declare a cancellation ⁹  of debts.

Deuteronomy 15:12-15

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ¹⁰  – whether male or female ¹¹  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ¹²  go free. ¹³  15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously ¹⁴  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.

Deuteronomy 15:18

15:18 You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice ¹⁵  the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Deuteronomy 31:10

31:10 He ¹⁶  commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, ¹⁷  at the Feast of Temporary Shelters, ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 34:8-17

The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves

34:8 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant ¹⁹  with all the people in Jerusalem ²⁰  to grant their slaves their freedom. 34:9 Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. ²¹  34:10 All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ²²  34:11 But later ²³  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ²⁴  34:12 That was when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, ²⁵  34:13 “The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. ²⁶  ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors ²⁷  when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. ²⁸  It stipulated, ²⁹  34:14 “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” ³⁰  But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me. 34:15 Recently, however, you yourselves ³¹  showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. ³²  34:16 But then you turned right around ³³  and showed that you did not honor me. ³⁴  Each of you took back your male and female slaves whom you had freed as they desired, and you forced them to be your slaves again. ³⁵  34:17 So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. ³⁶  Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom ³⁷  to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! ³⁸  I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. ³⁹ 

[25:40]  ¹ tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

[25:41]  ² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

[25:41]  ³ tn Heb “may go out from you.”

[25:41]  ⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

[25:42]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

[25:43]  ⁶ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”

[25:45]  ⁷ tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.

[25:45]  ⁸ tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).

[15:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּת (shÿmittat), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the cancellation of the debt and even pledges for the debt of a borrower by his creditor. This could be a full and final remission or, more likely, one for the seventh year only. See R. Wakely, NIDOTTE 4:155-60. Here the words “of debts” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. Cf. NAB “a relaxation of debts”; NASB, NRSV “a remission of debts.”

[15:12]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

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

[15:12]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

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

[15:18]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh, “twice”) could mean “equivalent to” (cf. NRSV) or, more likely, “double” (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). The idea is that a hired worker would put in only so many hours per day whereas a bondslave was available around the clock.

[31:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:10]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.

[31:10]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.

[34:8]  ¹⁹ tn Usually translated “covenant.” See the study note on 11:2 for the rationale for the translation here.

[34:8]  ²⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[34:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “after King Zedekiah made a covenant…to proclaim liberty to them [the slaves mentioned in the next verse] so that each would send away free his male slave and his female slave, the Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman, so that a man would not hold them in bondage, namely a Judean, his brother [this latter phrase is explicative of “them” because it repeats the preposition in front of “them”].” The complex Hebrew syntax has been broken down into shorter English sentences but an attempt has been made to retain the proper subordinations.

[34:10]  ²² tn Heb “And they complied, [that is] all the leaders and all the people who entered into the covenant that they would each let his male slave and his female slave go free so as not to hold them in bondage any longer; they complied and they let [them] go.” The verb “they complied” (Heb “they hearkened”) is repeated at the end after the lengthy description of the subject. This is characteristic of Hebrew style. The translation has resolved the complex sentence by making the relative clauses modifying the subject independent sentences describing the situational background before mentioning the main focus, “they had complied and let them go.”

[34:11]  ²³ sn Most commentators are agreed that the incident referred to here occurred during the period of relief from the siege provided by the Babylonians going off to fight against the Egyptians who were apparently coming to Zedekiah’s aid (compare vv. 21-22 with 37:5, 7). The freeing of the slaves had occurred earlier, under the crisis of the siege while the people were more responsive to the Lord due to the threat of destruction (cf. v. 15).

[34:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they had brought them into subjection for male and female slaves.” However, the qualification of “male and female” is already clear from the preceding and is unnecessary to the English sentence.

[34:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying.” This is the resumption of the introduction in v. 8 after the lengthy description of the situation that had precipitated the Lord’s message to Jeremiah. “That was when” is intended to take the reader back to v. 8.

[34:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘…’” The style adopted here has been used to avoid a longer, more complex English sentence.

[34:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 14, 15).

[34:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “out of the house of bondage.”

[34:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “made a covenant, saying.” This was only one of several stipulations of the covenant. The form used here has been chosen as an indirect way of relating the specific stipulation that is being focused upon to the general covenant that is referred to in v. 13.

[34:14]  ³⁰ sn Compare Deut 15:12-18 for the complete statement of this law. Here only the first part of it is cited.

[34:15]  ³¹ tn The presence of the independent pronoun in the Hebrew text is intended to contrast their actions with those of their ancestors.

[34:15]  ³² sn This refers to the temple. See Jer 7:10, 11, 14, 30 and see the translator’s note on 7:10 and the study note on 10:25 for the explanation of the idiom involved here.

[34:16]  ³³ sn The verb at the beginning of v. 15 and v. 16 are the same in the Hebrew. They had two changes of heart (Heb “you turned”), one that was pleasing to him (Heb “right in his eyes”) and one that showed they did not honor him (Heb “profaned [or belittled] his name”).

[34:16]  ³⁴ sn Heb “you profaned my name.” His name had been invoked in the oath confirming the covenant. Breaking the covenant involved taking his name in vain (cf. Exod 20:7; Deut 5:11; Jer 5:2). Hence the one who bore the name was not treated with the special honor and reverence due him (see the study note on 23:27 for the significance of “name” in the OT).

[34:16]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and you brought them into subjection to be to you for male and female slaves.” See the translator’s note on v. 11 for the same redundant repetition which is not carried over into the contemporary English sentence.

[34:17]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew text has a compound object, the two terms of which have been synonyms in vv. 14, 15. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 189) make the interesting observation that these two terms (Heb “brother” and “neighbor”) emphasize the relationships that should have taken precedence over their being viewed as mere slaves.

[34:17]  ³⁷ sn This is, of course, a metaphorical and ironical use of the term “to grant freedom to.” It is, however, a typical statement of the concept of talionic justice which is quite often operative in God’s judgments in the OT (cf., e.g., Obad 15).

[34:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:17]  ³⁹ sn Compare Jer 15:4; 24:9; 29:18.