54 Bible Verses about slavery

Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

Therefore 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 in regard to righteousness.

For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave.

The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.

and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.

“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

“If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished.

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

“Is Israel a slave? Or is he a homeborn servant?
Why has he become a prey?

Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that.

So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.

The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.

And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

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

“You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.

and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.

If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property.

So he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants
He shall be to his brothers.”

“Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt
And ransomed you from the house of slavery,
And I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place. And nothing leavened shall be eaten.

Under a slave when he becomes king,
And a fool when he is satisfied with food,

But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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

Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.

You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.

He who pampers his slave from childhood
Will in the end find him to be a son.

He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’

I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.