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Although slavery in modern societies is condemned and viewed as a crime against humanity, it was an accepted institution in the ancient world.  In Israel, it was an established practice to own slaves. 

The price paid was somewhat indefinite; it varied according to circumstances, sex, age and condition of the slaves.  About 1700 BC, Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelite traders for 20 shekels of silver (Gen. 37: 28).

In the Old Testament

The Bible nowhere explicitly condemns slavery, but allows a regulated practice of it, especially in the Old Testament.  The Israelites were allowed to impose the punishment of servitude upon “the heathen that are round about you” (Lev. 25: 44).  A father could sell his daughter (Ex. 21: 7; Neh. 5: 5);   a widow’s children might be sold to pay their father’s debt (II Ki. 4: 1); an impoverished person could “sell himself” (Lev. 25: 39, 47).

However, the Old Testament opposes the oppression of slaves.  The Mosaic Law provides for their protection from wicked masters.  “It was the object of Moses, not at once to do away with slavery, but to discourage and to mitigate it.  The Law would not suffer it to be forgotten that the slave was a man, and protected him in every way that was possible at the time against the injustice or cruelty of his master” – Albert Barnes.

Interestingly, Job, in his discourse with his three friends, raised the query of fairness to slaves: “If I have despised the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me; What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?”  (Job 31: 13-14).

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia aptly observed:  “Generally,  Hebrew slaves fared far better than the Grecian, Roman and other slaves of later years.  In general, the treatment they received and the rights they could claim made their lot reasonably good. Of course a slave was a slave, and there were masters who disobeyed God and even abused their ‘brothers in bonds.’ …  Certain rights were discretionary, it is true, but many Hebrew slaves enjoyed valuable individual and social privileges.”

The following are some Biblical rules governing the treatment of slaves:

1. Israelite slaves were to be treated as hired servants; they were to be freed after six years of service (Ex. 21: 2-6).  
2. Foreign slaves – “children of the strangers that do sojourn among you” and their posterity became the perpetual property of the owner’s family – “they shall be your bondmen for ever” (Lev. 25: 46).
3. A slave whose master maimed him was allowed to go free (Ex. 21: 26-27).
4. In the case of a woman who was sold to be a concubine, she was not “to go out” like the male slave, that is, she was not to be released at the end of the sixth year.  However, the neglect or displeasure of her master gave her the right to freedom (Ex. 21: 7-11). 
5. Debtors who sold themselves as slaves to their creditors had to be treated in the same way as a hired servant (Lev. 25: 39-43).
6. Runaway slaves were not to be returned to their masters:  “Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee” (Deut. 23: 15).  This refers to a slave who fled from his pagan master to Israel.  It is assumed that the fugitive was not fleeing from justice, but only from the tyranny of his master.
7. The servitude of a slave might be terminated in two ways: (1) by the recurrence of the year of jubilee (Lev. 25: 40); and (2) at the end of six years of servitude (Ex. 21: 2; Deut. 15: 12).  At the expiration of his term, the master was enjoined not to “let him go away empty,” but to remunerate him liberally out of his flock, his floor and his wine-press (Deut. 15:13-14).

The basic rule in Israel is laid down in Leviticus 25: 42-43: “For they are My servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.  Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.”  God did not make his servants slaves, and therefore their brethren must not.  God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and therefore they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen.  (to be continued)

- Pastor