39 Bible Verses about Slavery, In Ot

'When thou drawest near unto a city to fight against it, then thou hast called unto it for Peace, and it hath been, if Peace it answer thee, and hath opened to thee, then it hath come to pass -- all the people who are found in it are to thee for tributaries, and have served thee.

And the king of Sodom saith unto Abram, 'Give to me the persons, and the substance take to thyself,'

And the sons of Israel take captive the women of Midian, and their infants; and all their cattle, and all their substance, and all their wealth they have plundered;

And the Aramaeans have gone out by troops, and they take captive out of the land of Israel a little damsel, and she is before the wife of Naaman,

And the sons of Israel take captive of their brethren, two hundred thousand, wives, sons and daughters, and also much spoil they have seized from them, and they bring in the spoil to Samaria.

And thy man-servant and thy handmaid whom thou hast are of the nations who are round about you; of them ye buy man-servant and handmaid, and also of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, of them ye buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession;

And it cometh to pass, when Joseph hath come unto his brethren, that they strip Joseph of his coat, the long coat which is upon him, and take him and cast him into the pit, and the pit is empty, there is no water in it. And they sit down to eat bread, and they lift up their eyes, and look, and lo, a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, and their camels bearing spices, and balm, and myrrh, going to take them down to Egypt.read more.
And Judah saith unto his brethren, 'What gain when we slay our brother, and have concealed his blood? Come, and we sell him to the Ishmaelites, and our hands are not on him, for he is our brother -- our flesh;' and his brethren hearken. And Midianite merchantmen pass by and they draw out and bring up Joseph out of the pit, and sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silverlings, and they bring Joseph into Egypt.

And a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets hath cried unto Elisha, saying, 'Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou hast known that thy servant was fearing Jehovah, and the lender hath come to take my two children to him for servants.'

'If in the breaking through, the thief is found, and he hath been smitten, and hath died, there is no blood for him; if the sun hath risen upon him, blood is for him, he doth certainly repay; if he have nothing, then he hath been sold for his theft;

'And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service;

When thy brother is sold to thee, a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, and he hath served thee six years -- then in the seventh year thou dost send him away free from thee.

And there is a great cry of the people and their wives, concerning their brethren the Jews, yea, there are who are saying, 'Our sons, and our daughters, we -- are many, and we receive corn, and eat, and live.' And there are who are saying, 'Our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses, we are pledging, and we receive corn for the famine.'read more.
And there are who are saying, 'We have borrowed money for the tribute of the king, on our fields, and our vineyards; and now, as the flesh of our brethren is our flesh, as their sons are our sons, and lo, we are subduing our sons and our daughters for servants, and there are of our daughters subdued, and our hand hath no might, and our fields and our vineyards are to others.'

if his lord give to him a wife, and she hath borne to him sons or daughters -- the wife and her children are her lord's, and he goeth out by himself.

'And a son of eight days is circumcised by you; every male to your generations, born in the house, or bought with money from any son of a stranger, who is not of thy seed; he is certainly circumcised who is born in thine house, or bought with thy money; and My covenant hath become in your flesh a covenant age-during;

A servant is Israel? Is he a child of the house? Wherefore hath he been for a prey?

And David gathereth all the people, and goeth to Rabbah, and fighteth against it, and captureth it; and he taketh the crown of their king from off his head, and its weight is a talent of gold, and precious stones, and it is on the head of David; and the spoil of the city he hath brought out, very much; and the people who are in it he hath brought out, and setteth to the saw, and to cutting instruments of iron, and to axes of iron, and hath caused them to pass over into the brick-kiln; and so he doth to all the cities of the Bene-Ammon; and David turneth back, and all the people, to Jerusalem.

And they set over it princes of tribute, so as to afflict it with their burdens, and it buildeth store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses; and as they afflict it, so it multiplieth, and so it breaketh forth, and they are vexed because of the sons of Israel; and the Egyptians cause the sons of Israel to serve with rigour,read more.
and make their lives bitter in hard service, in clay, and in brick, and in every kind of service in the field; all their service in which they have served is with rigour.

And Joshua calleth for them, and speaketh unto them, saying, 'Why have ye deceived us, saying, We are very far from you, and ye in our midst dwelling? and now, cursed are ye, and none of you is cut off from being a servant, even hewers of wood and drawers of water, for the house of my God.'

and they have not dispossessed the Canaanite who is dwelling in Gezer, and the Canaanite dwelleth in the midst of Ephraim unto this day, and is to tribute -- a servant.

and it cometh to pass, when Israel hath been strong, that he setteth the Canaanite to tribute, and hath not utterly dispossessed it.

The whole of the people that is left of the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, who are not of the sons of Israel -- their sons who are left behind them in the land, whom the sons of Israel have not been able to devote -- he hath even lifted up on them a tribute of service unto this day.

thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God.

'And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants; if evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he hath not betrothed her, then he hath let her be ransomed; to a strange people he hath not power to sell her, in his dealing treacherously with her. 'And if to his son he betroth her, according to the right of daughters he doth to her.read more.
If another woman he take for him, her food, her covering, and her habitation, he doth not withdraw; and if these three he do not to her, then she hath gone out for nought, without money.

'Six days thou dost do thy work, and on the seventh day thou dost rest, so that thine ox and thine ass doth rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the sojourner is refreshed;

six days thou dost labour, and hast done all thy work, and the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not do any work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy handmaid, and thy cattle, and thy sojourner who is within thy gates, --

'And it hath been, the place on which Jehovah your God doth fix to cause His name to tabernacle there, thither ye bring in all that which I am commanding you, your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all the choice of your vows which ye vow to Jehovah; and ye have rejoiced before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your handmaids, and the Levite who is within your gates, for he hath no part and inheritance with you.

And Abram saith, 'Lo, to me Thou hast not given seed, and lo, a domestic doth heir me.'

'Thou dost not shut up a servant unto his lord, who is delivered unto thee from his lord;

And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he hath gone out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. For to Me are the sons of Israel servants; My servants they are, whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I, Jehovah, am your God.

'And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service; as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, -- then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back.

When thou buyest a Hebrew servant -- six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought;

if by himself he cometh in, by himself he goeth out; if he is owner of a wife, then his wife hath gone out with him; if his lord give to him a wife, and she hath borne to him sons or daughters -- the wife and her children are her lord's, and he goeth out by himself. And if the servant really say: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons -- I do not go out free;read more.
then hath his lord brought him nigh unto God, and hath brought him nigh unto the door, or unto the side-post, and his lord hath bored his ear with an awl, and he hath served him -- to the age.

When thy brother is sold to thee, a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, and he hath served thee six years -- then in the seventh year thou dost send him away free from thee. And when thou dost send him away free from thee, thou dost not send him away empty; thou dost certainly encircle him out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy wine-vat; of that which Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee thou dost give to him,read more.
and thou hast remembered that a servant thou hast been in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God doth ransom thee; therefore I am commanding thee this thing to-day. And it hath been, when he saith unto thee, I go not out from thee -- because he hath loved thee, and thy house, because it is good for him with thee -- then thou hast taken the awl, and hast put it through his ear, and through the door, and he hath been to thee a servant age-during; and also to thy handmaid thou dost do so. 'It is not hard in thine eyes, in thy sending him away free from thee; for the double of the hire of an hireling he hath served thee six years, and Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee in all that thou dost.

The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after the making by the king Zedekiah of a covenant with all the people who are in Jerusalem, to proclaim to them liberty, to send out each his man-servant, and each his maid-servant -- the Hebrew and the Hebrewess -- free, so as not to lay service on them, any on a Jew his brother; and hearken do all the heads, and all the people who have come in to the covenant to send forth each his man-servant and each his maid-servant free, so as not to lay service on them any more, yea, they hearken, and send them away;read more.
and they turn afterwards, and cause the men-servants and the maid-servants to return, whom they had sent forth free, and they subdue them for men-servants and for maid-servants. And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying: Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, I -- I made a covenant with your fathers in the day of My bringing them forth from the land of Egypt, from a house of servants, saying, At the end of seven years ye do send forth each his brother, the Hebrew, who is sold to thee, and hath served thee six years, yea, thou hast sent him forth free from thee: and your fathers hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear. 'And ye turn back, ye to-day, and ye do that which is right in Mine eyes, to proclaim liberty each to his neighbour, and ye make a covenant before Me in the house over which My name is called. And -- ye turn back, and pollute My name, and ye cause each his man-servant and each his maid-servant, whom he had sent forth free, (at their pleasure,) to return, and ye subdue them to be to you for men-servants and for maid-servants. Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened unto Me to proclaim freedom, each to his brother, and each to his neighbour; lo, I am proclaiming to you liberty -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- unto the sword, unto the pestilence, and unto the famine, and I have given you for a trembling to all kingdoms of the earth. And I have given the men who are transgressing My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant that they have made before Me, by the calf, that they have cut in two, and pass through between its pieces -- heads of Judah, and heads of Jerusalem, the officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land those passing through between the pieces of the calf -- yea, I have given them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their soul, and their carcase hath been for food to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth.

And when the hand of a sojourner or settler with thee attaineth riches, and thy brother with him hath become poor, and he hath been sold to a sojourner, a settler with thee, or to the root of the family of a sojourner, after he hath been sold, there is a right of redemption to him; one of his brethren doth redeem him, or his uncle, or a son of his uncle, doth redeem him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, doth redeem him, or -- his own hand hath attained -- then he hath been redeemed.read more.
'And he hath reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him till the year of jubilee, and the money of his sale hath been by the number of years; as the days of an hireling it is with him. If yet many years, according to them he giveth back his redemption money, from the money of his purchase. And if few are left of the years till the year of jubilee, then he hath reckoned with him, according to his years he doth give back his redemption money; as an hireling, year by year, he is with him, and he doth not rule him with rigour before thine eyes.

and ye have taken them for inheritance to your sons after you, to occupy for a possession; to the age ye lay service upon them, but upon your brethren, the sons of Israel, one with another, thou dost not rule over him with rigour.

'If the ox gore a man-servant or a handmaid, thirty silver shekels he doth give to their lord, and the ox is stoned.

'And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service; as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, -- then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back.read more.
For they are My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold with the sale of a servant;

They have come in unto the land of Zuph, and Saul hath said to his young man who is with him, 'Come, and we turn back, lest my father leave off from the asses, and hath been sorrowful for us.' And he saith to him, 'Lo, I pray thee, a man of God is in this city, and the man is honoured; all that he speaketh doth certainly come; now, we go there, it may be he doth declare to us our way on which we have gone.' And Saul saith to his young man, 'And lo, we go, and what do we bring in to the man? for the bread hath gone from our vessels, and a present there is not to bring in to the man of God -- what is with us?'read more.
And the young man addeth to answer Saul, and saith, 'Lo, there is found with me a fourth of a shekel of silver: and I have given to the man of God, and he hath declared to us our way.' Formerly in Israel, thus said the man in his going to seek God, 'Come and we go unto the seer,' for the 'prophet' of to-day is called formerly 'the seer.' And Saul saith to his young man, 'Thy word is good; come, we go;' and they go unto the city where the man of God is.