Leviticus 25:39-43

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. ¹  25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; ²  he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then ³  he may go free, ⁴  he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ⁵  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. ⁶  25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, ⁷  but you must fear your God.

[25:39]  ¹ 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]  ² tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

[25:41]  ³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

[25:41]  ⁴ tn Heb “may go out from you.”

[25:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[25:42]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

[25:43]  ⁷ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”