39 Bible Verses about Slavery, In Ot

When you go to attack a city, first give its people a chance to surrender. If they open the gates and surrender, they will all become your slaves and do forced labor for you.

Then the king of Sodom said to Abram: Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.

The Israelites took the Midianite women and children as prisoners of war. They also took all their animals, their livestock, and their valuables as loot.

The Syrians carried off a little Israelite girl during one of their raids against Israel. The girl became a servant of Naaman's wife.

The Israelites captured two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls from their relatives the Judeans. They also took a lot of goods from Judah and brought them to Samaria.

You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property.

When Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his fancy coat. They put him into a water pit. It had no water in it. As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt.read more.
Judah asked his brothers: What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up his death? Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let us not hurt him, because he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. His brothers agreed. Some of the Midianite traders approached. The brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites. They took him to Egypt.

The widow of a member of a group of prophets said to Elisha: My husband has died! As you know, he was a man who respected God. A man to whom he owed money came to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt.

If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guiltiness on his account. But if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of murder. A thief must make up for what he has stolen. If he is unable to do so, he should be sold as a slave to pay for what he stole.

If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave.

If you buy Israelites (your own brothers) as slaves, you must set them free after six years.

Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their countrymen the Jews. Some said: We with our sons and our daughters are a great number. Let us get grain, so that we may have food for our needs. There were some who said: We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt. Let us get grain because we are in need.read more.
Yet others said: We have given up our fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes. But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children. Now we give our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants. Some of our daughters are servants even now. We have no power to stop this. For other men have our fields and our vine-gardens.

If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master. He shall go out alone.

For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised. This includes those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner, those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be a long lasting covenant.

Are the people of Israel slaves? Were they born into slavery? Why, then, have they become someone's property?

David assembled the rest of the army and attacked Rabbah. He captured the city. He removed the crown of their god Milcom from off the head of their king. The crown was made of seventy-five pounds of gold. There was a valuable jewel on it. David put the jewel on his own crown. He also carried off everything else of value. David made the people of Rabbah tear down the city walls with iron picks and axes. He also put them to work making bricks. He did the same thing with all the other Ammonite cities. David went back to Jerusalem. The people of Israel returned to their homes.

So the Egyptians put slave masters over them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply (storage) cities for Pharaoh. However the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians could not stand them any longer. They forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves.read more.
They made their lives bitter with backbreaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard work.

Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying: Why did you deceive us, saying: 'We are very far from you' when you dwell among us? Now you are cursed, and none of you will be freed from being slaves, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.

They did not drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, and have become forced laborers.

When Israel was strong they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor. They did not completely drive them out.

Solomon used the descendants of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had not killed when they took possession of their land as his forced labor. These included Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Their descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time.

Do not treat them harshly. Respect your God.

When a man sells his daughter into slavery, she will not go free the way male slaves do. If she does not please the master who has chosen her as a wife, he must let her be bought back by one of her close relatives. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, since he has treated her unfairly. If a man buys a female slave to give to his son, he should treat her like a daughter.read more.
If a man takes a second wife, he must continue to give his first wife the same amount of food and clothing and the same rights that she had before. If he fails to do any of these things, she should be given her freedom without cost.

Work six days a week. Do no work on the seventh day. Allow your slaves and the foreigners who work for you and even your animals to rest.

You have six days to do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath dedicated to Jehovah your God. Do not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.

It will happen in the place Jehovah choose for his name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you. Bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings that you will vow to Jehovah. Rejoice (be filled with joy) before Jehovah your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

Abram also said: You have given me no offspring. So a slave born in my house is to be my heir.

Do not hand over an escaped slave to his master.

If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee. The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'

If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave. He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors.

When you buy a Hebrew slave he will be your slave for six years. In the seventh year he may leave as a free man without paying for his freedom.

If he was single at the time you bought him he alone must be set free. If he was married at that time, both he and his wife must be given their freedom. If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master. He shall go out alone. What if the slave loves his wife and children so much that he will not leave without them?read more.
He must stand beside either the door or the doorpost at the place of worship. His owner will punch a small hole through one of his ears with a sharp metal rod. This makes him a slave for life.

If you buy Israelites (your own brothers) as slaves, you must set them free after six years. Do not send him away empty handed when you set him free. Supply him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat. Give to him as Jehovah your God has blessed you.read more.
Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this today! If he says to you: I will not leave you. If it is because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you, then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door. He will be your servant for a very long time. You should do likewise to your maidservant. It should not seem hard to you when you set him free. After all he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man. Jehovah your God will bless you in whatever you do.

Jehovah spoke his word to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem promised to free their slaves. Everyone was supposed to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female. No one was supposed to keep another Jew as a slave. All the officials and all the people agreed and promised to free their male and female slaves and not to keep them as slaves anymore. So they set them free.read more.
Later they changed their minds and took back the men and women they had freed and made them their slaves again. Jehovah continued to speak his word to Jeremiah: This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: 'I put a condition on the covenant I made to your ancestors when I brought them from Egypt, where they were slaves. I said: Every seven years each of you must free any Hebrews who sold themselves to you. When they have served you for six years, you must set them free. But your ancestors refused to obey me or listen to me. You changed and did what I consider right. You agreed to free your neighbors, and you made a covenant in my presence, in the Temple that is called by my name. Now you have changed again and dishonored me. You brought back the male and females slaves that you had set free to live their own lives. You have forced them to be your male and female slaves again.' This is what Jehovah says: 'You did not obey me. You have not freed your relatives and neighbors. Now I am going to free you,' declares Jehovah. 'I will free you to die in wars, plagues, and famines. I will make all the kingdoms of the world horrified at the thought of you. I will hand over the people who have rejected my covenant. They have not kept the terms of the covenant they made in my presence when they cut a calf in two and passed between its pieces. I will hand over the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the palace officials, the priests, and all the common people who passed between the pieces of the calf. I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their corpses will be food for birds and wild animals.

Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom.read more.
Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly.

You may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly.

If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave. He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors.read more.
They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves.

When they came to the territory of Zuph, Saul told his servant who was with him: Let us go back, or my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and worry about us instead. The servant responded: There's a man of God in this city, a highly respected man. Everything he says is sure to happen. Let us go there. Maybe he will tell us which way we should go. Saul said: How can we talk to the prophet when I do not have anything to give him? We do not even have any food left in our sacks. What can we give him?read more.
I have a small piece of silver, the servant answered. We can give him that. Then he will tell us where to look for the donkeys. Formerly in Israel, when a person went to ask God a question, he would say: Come; let's go to the seer. This is because a prophet used to be called a seer. Saul told his servant: That is a good idea! Come on let us go. They went to the city where the man of God was.