'Servant' in the Bible

Look!" Abram said, "You haven't given me any offspring, so a servant born in my house is going to be my heir."

Now Abram's wife Sarai had not borne a child for him. She had an Egyptian servant girl whose name was Hagar.

So Sarai told Abram, "You are well aware that the LORD has prevented me from giving birth to a child. Go have sex with my servant, so that I may possibly bear a son through her."

Abram listened to Sarai's suggestion, so Abram's wife Sarai took her Egyptian servant, Hagar, and gave her as a wife to her husband Abram. This took place ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.

Then Sarai told Abram, "My suffering is your fault! I gave you my servant so you could have sex with her, and when she discovered that she was pregnant, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!"

Abram answered Sarai, "Look, your servant is under your control, so do to her as you wish." So Sarai dealt so harshly with Hagar that she ran away from Sarai.

"Hagar, servant of Sarai," he asked, "Where are you coming from and where are you going?" She answered, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."

Generation after generation, every male among you is to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, including the servant born in your house or the one purchased from a foreigner, who is not of your offspring.

The servant born in your house or the one purchased with money is to be circumcised. My covenant is to remain in your flesh as an eternal covenant.

"My lords," he told them, "if I have found favor with you, please don't leave your servant.

I'll bring some food for you, and after that you may continue your journey, since you have come to visit your servant." So they replied, "Okay! Do what you've proposed."

"Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I'm afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.

So Abraham instructed his servant, who was the oldest member of his household and in charge of everything he owned, "Make this solemn oath to me

"What if the woman doesn't want to come back with me to this land?" the servant asked. "Shouldn't I have your son go to the land from which you came?"

So the servant made a solemn oath to his master Abraham regarding this matter.

Then Abraham's servant took ten camels from his master's herd of camels and left on his journey with all kinds of gifts from his master's inventory. Eventually, he traveled as far as Aram-naharaim, Nahor's home town.

May it be that the young woman to whom I ask, "Please, lower your jug so that I may drink,' responds, "Have a drink, and I'll water your camels as well.' May she be the one whom you have chosen for your servant Isaac. This is how I'll know that you have shown your gracious love to my master."

Then Abraham's servant ran to meet her and asked her, "Please, let me have a sip of water from your jug."

So the servant went to the house and unbridled the camels. They provided straw and feed for the camels and water for washing his feet and those of the men with him.

"I'm Abraham's servant," he said.

When Abraham's servant heard what they had said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.

Then the servant brought out some silver and gold items, along with some clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave gifts to her brother and to her mother.

He and the men with him ate and drank, and then they spent the night. When they got up the next morning, the servant requested, "Send me off to my master."

"Please don't delay me," the servant answered them. "The LORD has made my journey successful. Send me off so I can return to my master."

So they sent off their sister Rebekah, along with her personal assistant, Abraham's servant, and his men.

Then Rebekah and her young servant women got up, mounted their camels, and followed Abraham's servant, who took Rebekah and went on his way.

and asked the servant, "Who is that man coming in the field to meet us?"

"That's my master," the servant told her. So she reached for a veil and covered herself. Then the servant informed Isaac about everything he had done.

Now this is what happened to Ishmael, whom Sarah's Egyptian servant Hagar bore for Abraham.

where one night the LORD appeared to him. "I am the God of your father Abraham," he told him. "Don't be afraid, because I'm with you. I'm going to bless you and multiply your descendants on account of my servant Abraham."

Laban also gave his servant woman Zilpah to Leah to be her maidservant.

Rachel's servant conceived again and bore a second son for Jacob,

Leah's servant Zilpah bore a son to Jacob,

Later, Leah's servant Zilpah bore a second son for Jacob.

Then Leah said, "God has paid me for giving my servant to my husband as his wife." So she named him Issachar.

He instructed them, "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: "Your servant Jacob told me to tell you, "I've journeyed to stay with Laban and I've remained there until now.

I'm unworthy of all your gracious love, your faithfulness, and everything that you've done for your servant. When I first crossed over this river, I had only my staff. But now I've become two groups.

then you are to reply, "We're from your servant Jacob. The herds are a gift. He's sending them to my master, Esau. Look! There he is, coming along behind us.'"

You are to tell him, "Look! Your servant Jacob is coming along behind us.'"

"The children, whom God has graciously given your servant," he answered. Then the women servants approached, accompanied by their children, and bowed low.

So allow yourself to go ahead of your servant while I travel more slowly, letting the herds set their own pace with the children until I arrive to see my lord in Seir."

Rachel's servant Bilhah's sons were Dan and Naphtali.

Leah's servant Zilpah's sons were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob's sons who were born to him while he lived in Paddan-aram.

When Joseph's master heard his wife's claim to the effect that "This is how your servant treated me," he flew into a rage,

There was a Hebrew young man incarcerated with us, who was also working as a servant to the captain of the bodyguard.

"Your servant, our father, is doing well," they replied. "He is still alive." Then they bowed down in humility.

But Judah approached him and begged him, "Your Excellency, please allow your servant to speak to you privately. Please don't be angry with your servant, since you are equal to Pharaoh.

Later on, after we had gone back to your servant, my father, we told him what Your Excellency had said.

"Then your servant, our father, told us, "You know my wife bore me two sons.

"So when I go back to your servant, my father, and the young man isn't with us, since he's constantly living life focused on his son,

when he notices that the young man hasn't come back with us, he'll die, and your servants really will have brought death to your servant, our father, along with his sad, gray hair!

Also, your servant pledged his own life as a guarantee of the young man's safety. I told my father, "If I don't bring him back to you, you can blame me forever.'

Therefore, please allow your servant to remain as a slave to Your Excellency, instead of the young man, and let the young man go back home with his brothers.

ThenPharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile River to bathe while her maids walked along the river bank. She saw the container among the reeds and sent a servant girl to get it.

Then Moses told the LORD, "Please, LORD, I'm not eloquent. I never was in the past nor am I now since you spoke to your servant. In fact, I talk too slowly and I have a speech impediment."

But no temporary resident or a hired servant is to eat it.

When Israel saw the great force by which the LORD had acted against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed the LORD and Moses his servant.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you

"You are not to desire your neighbor's house, nor your neighbor's wife, his male or female servant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything else that pertains to your neighbor."

"When you acquire a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, and in the seventh he is to go out a free man without paying anything.

But if the servant, in fact, says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I won't go out a free man,'

"When a man sells his daughter as a servant, she won't go out as the male servants do.

"If a man strikes his male or female servant with a stick and he or she dies as a direct result, the master must be punished.

But if the servant survives a day or two, the master is not to be punished because the servant is his property.

"If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he is to release him as a free man in exchange for his eye.

If he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he is to release him as a free man in exchange for his tooth.

"If the ox gores a male or female servant, the owner is to give 30 shekels of silver to the servant's master, and the ox is to be stoned.

So Moses got up, along with Joshua his servant, and went up on the mountain of God.

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face just as a man speaks with his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, Nun's son Joshua, his young servant, would not leave the tent.

Instead, he is to serve with you like a hired servant or a traveler who lives with you, until the year of jubilee.

"He is to bring an accounting to the one who bought him, starting from the year he had sold himself until the year of jubilee. The price of his sale is to correspond to the number of years comparable to the time a hired servant stays with him.

Like a hired servant, he is to remain with him year after year, but he is not to rule over him with what you see as severity.

so he asked the LORD, "Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven't I found favor in your eyes? After all, you're putting the burden of this entire people on me!

But that's not how it is with my servant Moses, since he has been entrusted with my entire household!

I speak to him audibly and in visions, not in mysteries. If he can gaze at the image of the LORD, why aren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

Now as to my servant Caleb, because a different spirit is within him and he has remained true to me, I'm going to bring him into the land that he explored, and his descendants are to inherit it.

"LORD God, you've begun to show your greatness and your strong power to your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can equal your works and mighty deeds?

So Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, just as the LORD had said.

After Moses, the servant of the LORD, had died, the LORD spoke to Nun's son Joshua, announcing to him,

"My servant Moses is dead. Now get ready to cross the Jordan River you and all the people to the land that I'm giving the Israelis.

Only be strong and very courageous to ensure that you obey all the instructions that my servant Moses gave you turn neither to the right nor to the left from it so that you may succeed wherever you go.

until the LORD gives relief to your relatives, as he did to you. Then they'll take the land that the LORD your God is giving them as their inheritance. You'll return to the land of your heritage and receive the inheritance that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the east side of the Jordan River, in the direction of the sunrise."

"Neither," he answered. "I have come as commander of the LORD's Army." Joshua immediately fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, saying to him, "Lord, what do you have for your servant by way of command?"

just the way Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelis in the Book of the Law of Moses: ""an altar of uncut stones that hasn't been worked with iron tools"" and they offered burnt offerings to the LORD on it, along with peace offerings.

All Israel, both foreigners and citizens, together with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on opposite sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD. Half stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half stood in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the LORD's servant had commanded at the first, so that they could bless the people of Israel.

They replied to Joshua, "Because your servants had been informed that the LORD your God had certainly commanded his servant Moses to give you the entire land and to destroy all of the inhabitants of the land before you. So we were terrified for our lives because of you. That's why we did this.

So Joshua captured and annihilated all of these cities, along with their kings, completely destroying them, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded.

Joshua did just what the LORD had commanded his servant Moses and just what Moses had commanded him, leaving nothing unfinished.

Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the Israelis defeated them. Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, gave it to the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance.

The descendants of Reuben and descendants of Gad, along with the other half-tribe of Manasseh, received their inherited portion that Moses the servant of the LORD had given them to the east beyond the Jordan River.

I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to scout the land. I brought back an honest report to him.

The descendants of Levi have no allotment among you, since the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh received their inheritance to the east, beyond the Jordan River given to them by Moses the servant of the LORD."

and told them, "You have done everything that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and you have listened to me in everything that I commanded you.

Now the LORD has given peace to your relatives, just as he told them. Therefore, proceed to your tents to the land that is yours to possess that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan River.

Only be very careful to keep the commands and the Law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you that is, to love the LORD your God, to follow in all of his ways, to keep his commands, to stay close to him, and to serve him with all your heart and soul."

Some time later, Joshua servant of the LORD died at the age of 110 years, and

But then Nun's son Joshua, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years.

But if you're afraid to go down there, you may take your servant Purah with you to their encampment,

where you will hear what they're talking about. That way, you'll be encouraged to attack the encampment." So he and his servant Purah went down to the perimeter outposts of the encamped army.

Aferward, he became thirsty, called out to the LORD, and told him, "So, you provided this great deliverance at the hands of your servant, but now I'm to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"