54 Bible Verses about slavery

Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ.

Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness.

For he who is called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called as a free man is Christ’s slave.

The Lord will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Household slaves, submit with all fear to your masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.

The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is a slave to the lender.

and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

his master is to bring him to the judges and then bring him to the door or doorpost. His master must pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve his master for life.

God spoke in this way:

His descendants would be strangers
in a foreign country,
and they would enslave
and oppress them 400 years.

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”

Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves.

“When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years; then in the seventh he is to leave as a free man without paying anything.

“When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod, and the slave dies under his abuse, the owner must be punished.

Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

Jesus responded, “I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

Is Israel a slave?
Was he born into slavery?
Why else has he become a prey?

Were you called while a slave? It should not be a concern to you. But if you can become free, by all means take the opportunity.

In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elemental forces of the world.

A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

And masters, treat your slaves the same way, without threatening them, because you know that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.

Though we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has extended grace to us in the presence of the Persian kings, giving us new life, so that we can rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord.

“Do not return a slave to his master when he has escaped from his master to you.

and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years.

However, if the slave can stand up after a day or two, the owner should not be punished because he is his owner’s property.

he said:

Canaan will be cursed.
He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.

Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt
and redeemed you from that place of slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam ahead of you.

Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the Lord brought you out of here by the strength of His hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten.

a servant when he becomes king,
a fool when he is stuffed with food,

But the one by the slave was born according to the impulse of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.

They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.

be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

As God’s slaves, live as free people, but don’t use your freedom as a way to conceal evil.

One of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.”

Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven.

You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.

A slave pampered from his youth
will become arrogant later on.

Does he thank that slave because he did what was commanded?

Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

“But if the slave declares: ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I do not want to leave as a free man,’

I have seen slaves on horses,
but princes walking on the ground like slaves.