that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage.

For in the past, your yoke was broken by your hands and your cords parted; and you said, I will not be your servant; for on every high hill and under every branching tree, your behaviour was like that of a loose woman

But again you have put shame on my name, and you have taken back, every one his man-servant and his servant-girl, whom you had sent away free, and you have put them under the yoke again to be your servants and servant-girls.

But later, they took back again the servants and the servant-girls whom they had let go free, and put them again under the yoke as servants and servant-girls.

And this was done by all the rulers and the people who had taken part in the agreement, and every one let his man-servant and his servant-girl go free, not to be used as servants any longer; they did so, and let them go.

Look, I'm bringing them from the northern region, and I'll gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. among them will be the blind and the lame, together with the pregnant woman and the woman in labor. A large group will return here.

Stand by the road and keep watch, O woman who lives in Aroer. Ask the man who flees and the woman who escapes. Say, "What happened'?

I'll smash man and woman with you. I'll smash old man and young boy with you. I'll smash young man and young woman with you.

In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying, "I am done in! My life is ebbing away before these murderers!"

Is Israel a servant? has he been a house-servant from birth? why has he been made waste?