Thematic Bible: Laws of moses concerning


Thematic Bible



So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, and you must proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; each one of you must return to his property and each one of you must return to his clan.

If a man is found kidnapping a person from among his fellow Israelites, and regards him as mere property and sells him, that kidnapper must die. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

"'When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, although she is a slave woman designated for another man and she has not yet been ransomed, or freedom has not been granted to her, there will be an obligation to pay compensation. They must not be put to death, because she was not free. He must bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, a guilt offering ram, and the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven of his sin that he has committed.

If your fellow Hebrew -- whether male or female -- is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant go free.

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

"These are the decisions that you will set before them: "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything. If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him. read more.
If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself. But if the servant should declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. "If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her. If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters. If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one's food, her clothing, or her marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

"If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow, he will surely be punished. However, if the injured servant survives one or two days, the owner will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss.

"If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned.

You may have the Sabbath produce of the land to eat -- you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you,

"'If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident. Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you. You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit. read more.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan -- to be your God. "'If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God. "'As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you -- you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. "'If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member of a foreigner's family, after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives -- his family -- may redeem him, or if he prospers he may redeem himself. He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. If there are still many years, in keeping with them he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption, but if only a few years remain until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption. He must be with the one who bought him like a yearly hired worker. The one who bought him must not rule over him harshly in your sight. If, however, he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free in the jubilee year, he and his children with him, because the Israelites are my own servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

You must supply them generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress -- as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them.


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