Biblical Slavery

Slavery is a pretty touchy subject these days, especially in America. For a couple of hundred years, Americans owned slaves of various skin colors and nationalities. From Irish to African to American indians, to Chinese, all of them were slaves in America at one time or another, and all of them owned slaves of their own. Slavery has been in existence since practically the beginning of time, and every people that has ever lived has owned slaves. We tend to treat slavery like it was something that was only done to Africans by white Americans, but that’s so far from the truth it’s laughable. 

I’m serious.

Slavery is nothing new, and it is still being practiced around the world to this very day, even in America. Thousands of men, women, and children are trafficked around the globe every day, mainly for the sex trade. It’s a very disturbing fact of life, but even worse than this is the soft slavery the citizens of almost every nation around the globe experience as a part of daily life without even realizing it. Taxes and inflation take the majority of a citizen's paycheck, turning them into slaves of whatever government they happen to live under, without them even being aware of it. 

With slavery being so widespread for so long, you would think the Bible would have something to say on the subject, and indeed it does. To be sure, it’s not what most people think it says on the subject, but it does have quite a lot to say about it. That is our study today: slavery in the Bible. We’ll take a look at everything God says about slavery, and then see if there is any application of it for us in our world today. 

It's a more challenging topic to write about than some, because in Hebrew, there are only a few words for slaves, one for male slaves and one for female slaves. However, these two words can also simply mean servants, bond-servants (indentured servants), and hired workers. The context entirely determines what it means, which will make this a slightly more challenging post to write. Greek is the same, with a slight exception. The Greek word for servant and slave is the same, but they have a different word that specifically means slavery rather than just work in general. By contrast, Hebrew only has one word for labour and work, and slavery is included in that word. Because of this, looking at the various quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament can sometimes give us clarification of what type of work was being done, whether slavery or just general labor. 

Slavery in the Bible is a bit of a confusing topic, because of this, and there is some room for argument. For instance, one might even argue that the Israelites were simply servants in Egypt, and they were never in slavery or bondage. The Hebrew words allow for that because the word for bondage simply means “labor” or “service.” There must be a reason it got translated the way it did, however, because almost every translation renders it either “slavery” or “bondage.” 

Exodus 2:23 NASB95 - Now it came about in [the course of] those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of [their] bondage rose up to God.

The Hebrew word used here is the general word for service or labor.

עָבַד

Service, labor

Well, one of the places that tells us exactly what is going on here is in Acts chapter 7.

Acts 7:6 NASB95 - "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.

δουλόω

To make a slave of, reduce to bondage;

Genesis 15:13 NASB95 - [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.

עָבַד abad

Service, labor

עָנָה

Be occupied, busied, be bowed down, afflicted

Again, the word here is simply the general word for labor or service, but based on the context of Acts, we know that it should be translated in the context of forced labor, that is, slavery. We can get that context simply from reading the verse itself, in this case, but I wanted to demonstrate how the New Testament, being written in Greek, can be of use when looking backward into the Old Testament to gain context on how certain words should be rendered. 

Abad is used in combination with another word here, one that means afflict or oppress, which tells us all we need to know about the sort of labor they would be facing in Egypt; oppressive or forced labor, which is, by definition, slavery. 

Hopefully, this highlights just how important context is to translating words in a language where one word can mean several different things depending on how it is used. Context will be everything for this study (as it usually is), and a careful reading will give us what we need to understand the topic. So, first, what is slavery in the Bible?

A Definition

Well, as we saw with Israel in Egypt, it is forced labor. Technically, you could walk away from it, but if you did, they would kill you. In other words, the people weren’t in prison or in chains, but they couldn’t just walk away without consequences, either. Similar to slavery as we think of it in America, the slaves here weren’t in chains or cells, but they couldn’t just walk away from their masters. They would be pursued and hunted down, then punished and returned to their labor. It’s something similar to this that we see with Israel in Egypt, which was true slavery, not just a lousy boss. 

Exodus 1:11 NASB95 - So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.

מִסִּ֔ים

Collective body of forced labourers, task-workers, labour-band or gang

עָלָיו֙

As preposition upon, and hence on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against

The context means exactly what it says here, again, not just a lousy boss. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They were being forced to work for very little pay, which, really, if you are being forced to work, then you are a slave, regardless of how much you are being paid.

Deuteronomy 6:21 NASB95 - then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand.

עֲבָדִ֛ים avadim

Noun masculine slave, servant

So, according to the language used around the Israelites’ time in Egypt, we can confirm that slavery, according to the Bible, is forced labor or service, regardless of whether or not you are getting paid for it. The Israelites were compensated in a small way (mainly with food) for their service, but they were still being forced to work, which is indeed slavery.

Slavery, as slavery, does exist in the Bible, and God not only regulated it, but He allowed it as well, even commanding it in certain instances. He also differentiated between being a hired man and being a slave in one place.

Leviticus 25:39 NASB95 - 'If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave's service.

The word is the one we have already looked at for slave or servant, ebed. Ebed aboda is the full term here, and I would say it could be translated as either servant or slave, but for one thing: the next verse.

Leviticus 25:40 NASB95 - 'He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.

Rather than being an ebed, the native Hebrew man is to be treated as a sakir, which is simply a hired man. What we would think of as an employee or a servant. Ebed seems to be less than a voluntary position, it would seem more slave-like than servant-like. God then goes on to distinguish between a foreign slave and a Hebrew slave. 

Job 7:2 NASB95 - "As a slave who pants for the shade, And as a hired man who eagerly waits for his wages,

Again, we see here in Job a distinction made between a slave (ebed) and a hired man (sakir). The two classes are apparently different, and an ebed is not the same as a sakir. As we’ll see, the rules surrounding the two classes were indeed different.

Leviticus 25:44 NASB95 — ‘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.

Leviticus 25:45 NASB95 — ‘Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.

Leviticus 25:46 NASB95 — ‘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.

The rules around slaves who were not Israelites were quite different. You could buy and sell foreign slaves, and even bequeath them to your children as an inheritance forever. 

They were your possessions once you purchased them, and they were, in every sense of the word, property. 

Really.

I'm serious!

Foreigners could be bought and sold as property of their owners, passed down as inheritances, and kept permanently, whereas a Hebrew slave only had a maximum of seven years that they would be a slave unless they chose to remain longer. 

So, we find two different categories of slaves in the Bible, with two different sets of regulations. Israelites were more like indentured servants than they were slaves, while foreigners were the property of their owners permanently, which is why the word ebed works for both categories of slaves. 

Now, to be clear, even Israelite slaves were the monetary property of their owners, but it wasn’t permanent. Only foreign slaves became the permanent possession of their owners; slaves, including Israelite slaves, are described as the money of their owners, whether they are their permanent possession or not. 

Exodus 21:21 KJV - "Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

Several words get translated as property in the Bible, but only one of them refers to someone’s possessions. The word that gets translated as property here in Exodus 21 means money or silver, and it’s translated that way in almost every case it’s used. He purchased this slave, in other words. 

A slave, regardless of whether he is a foreigner or an Israelite, belongs to his master in a very real sense, even to the point of physical punishment being permissible. Now, as we have seen, if a slave is an Israelite, they are not supposed to be treated harshly, but if an owner so chose, he could presumably still administer physical punishment. 

Now, in the New Testament, the word used to describe a slave is a bit different.

Δοῦλος

Serving, subject to, bondservant, slave, servile condition

It always refers to a condition of slavery rather than that of a hired man. You are bound to serve your master until such a time as you are released because you belong to him. Again, there is a different word in Greek that means a hired man.

Μίσθιος

Employed for hire, hired

This word corresponds to the Hebrew word for a hired servant, so we find that Greek and Hebrew both have words that explicitly mean a hired servant rather than the other kind of servant, which is more akin to a slave because of bonded labor. Ebed and doulos carry the connotation of one who is bonded to labor for someone else, while misthios and sakir are hired workers.

We clearly find both categories in both the Greek and the Hebrew languages, which is handy because a direct correlation is always nice. If anything, the Greek word doulos is even more explicit in its meaning of someone who is bonded to work for someone else, and it is the word used to replace ebed in the Septuagint (again, this is not an endorsement of that particular translation). 

Doulos doesn’t ever mean simply a hired man or a household servant because there is an entirely different word for that in Greek. Most of the places where ebed appears in the Old Testament, it is replaced with doulos if the context is a bonded servant, but there are a few cases where ebed is replaced with a different word, which is the word παῖς. This is a fascinating word, and it has a lot of nuance to it where servants are concerned, because in general use it means a boy or a child, but in another context it means a servant, though not just any servant. 

Abraham’s servant is a great example of this, because in Hebrew he is called an ebed, but in Greek the translators chose pais to describe him. Pais carries a connotation of a servant or slave with a close relationship to their master, and it often means that particular servant was either born or brought up in the master’s household. In other contexts, it is also used to refer to the lowest of the low servants or slaves, as when Caannaan was cursed by Noah. As far as I can tell, when used to replace ebed, it always carries the connotation of a bound servant. 

I feel it is safe to say that ebed and doulos always refer to a servant bound to his master, whatever that binding might be formed by. 

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There is an interesting side note to this, however, and it has to do with the ancient greeting rituals adopted by the peoples of that day. When meeting someone, it was often the practice to refer to them as “my lord” as a term of respect, and refer to yourself as “your servant” as a term of humility and submission. It shows respect to the person you are speaking to, especially if they are of a higher rank than you, similar to how we might use “sir” today. Just something to keep in mind when reading through the Bible. 

They don’t always use either of these words literally when the context is polite conversation; rather, it is a term of deference. 

Acquiring Slaves

Now that we know what slaves were, how were the Sons of Israel allowed to acquire slaves? 

Abraham ended up with a lot of slaves in his household simply because of them being born there, and when he died, until Isaac was born, he planned to have the eldest of them inherit everything. Many of his slaves were purchased, or given to him, as we see the Bible mention repeatedly. 

Genesis 12:16 NASB95 - Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

Genesis 20:14 NASB95 - Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him.

Genesis 24:35 NASB95 - "The LORD has greatly blessed my master, so that he has become rich; and He has given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and servants and maids, and camels and donkeys.

His servant sent to find a wife for his son also acknowledged that it was God who had given Abraham all of these things, including the servants/slaves. So, that is one method of acquiring slaves, having them gifted to you.

Another method is through the purchase of them, either of one of your own people who sinned and had to be sold to repay his debt to society, a brother who fell into poverty, or the purchase of a foreign slave being sold in the land. 

Leviticus 25:44 NASB95 — ‘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.

Leviticus 25:45 NASB95 — ‘Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.

An important note is that these were foreigners who were dwelling in the land as aliens, not the ones who were living as Israelites. 

Although interestingly, Israelites could become the slaves of a foreigner through different circumstances, and because it was a voluntary selling of oneself, the rules were different. Depending on when the sale occurred, he might end up being that man’s slave for up to fifty years if no one redeemed him!

Leviticus 25:47 NASB95 - 'Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger's family,

Leviticus 25:48 NASB95 - then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,

Leviticus 25:49 NASB95 - or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

Leviticus 25:50 NASB95 - 'He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. [It is] like the days of a hired man [that] he shall be with him.

Leviticus 25:51 NASB95 - 'If there are still many years, he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption;

Leviticus 25:52 NASB95 - and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund [the amount for] his redemption.

Leviticus 25:53 NASB95 - 'Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.

Leviticus 25:54 NASB95 - 'Even if he is not redeemed by these [means,] he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.

Leviticus 25:55 NASB95 - 'For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

We find the same thing if a man chooses to sell himself to one of his brethren because he is poor. Since it was voluntary, he (and his sons) would be a slave until the Jubilee, so up to fifty years. 

Leviticus 25:39 NASB95 - 'If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave's service.

Leviticus 25:40 NASB95 - 'He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.

Deuteronomy 15:12 NASB95 - "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.

If you purchase a Hebrew slave from someone else, however, the service is only for seven years at most. His family would enter slavery with him, and they would leave with him when he was set free. 

Exodus 21:2 NASB95 - "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.

Exodus 21:3 NASB95 - "If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

Some of the reasons a Hebrew might have to be sold included theft or fines that he could not pay.

Exodus 22:3 NASB95 - "[But] if the sun has risen on him, there will be bloodguiltiness on his account. He shall surely make restitution; if he owns nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

The only other allowable method of acquiring slaves was through warfare.

Deuteronomy 20:10 NASB95 - "When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.

Deuteronomy 20:11 NASB95 - "If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you.

Deuteronomy 20:12 NASB95 - "However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

Deuteronomy 20:13 NASB95 - "When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.

Deuteronomy 20:14 NASB95 - "Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.

Deuteronomy 20:15 NASB95 - "Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby.

Solomon essentially did this when he made permanent slaves out of the people who remained in the land whom Israel had promised not to remove. They were not proselytes, they were still living as a foreign people.

1 Kings 9:20 NASB95 - [As for] all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,

1 Kings 9:21 NASB95 - their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel were unable to destroy utterly, from them Solomon levied forced laborers, even to this day.

1 Kings 9:22 NASB95 - But Solomon did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

Something that was not allowed was kidnapping someone to keep as either your slave or to sell.

Exodus 21:16 NASB95 — “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.

Deuteronomy 24:7 NASB95 — “If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

It’s pretty easy to understand that these instructions were specifically regarding Israelites since they could capture and keep as slaves any of the men of a city who surrendered to them, or after they had taken a city, any of the women and children they found there. However, it also seems unlikely that they would be able to kidnap others outside of warfare. No slave trade, in other words. Kidnapping is specifically condemned in the Bible, including in the New Testament!

1 Timothy 1:8 NASB95 - But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,

1 Timothy 1:9 NASB95 - realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers

1 Timothy 1:10 NASB95 - and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers (literally man stealers) and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,

I’m going to insert a side note briefly here and point out that Paul specifically states the law is still in effect at this point. The law is not for a righteous person, IE, one who is obeying the law, the law is for those who are breaking it. 

Now, nowhere can I find anything that prohibits purchasing a slave from someone, regardless of how that slave was acquired. If the man was an Israelite, then the one who kidnapped him would be put to death, but I don’t see a way that it could be confirmed that a foreigner was kidnapped, nor was there a prohibition against purchasing a foreign slave. Israelites simply were not allowed to be the ones out kidnapping the slaves, and the penalty for doing so was death.

Treatment of Slaves

Hopefully, by this point, we understand how an Israelite might acquire slaves, so now we are going to look at the treatment of these slaves. God put laws into place for their protection, especially if they were Sons of Israel.

Deuteronomy 15:12 NASB95 - "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.

Deuteronomy 15:13 NASB95 - "When you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 15:14 NASB95 - "You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.

Deuteronomy 15:18 NASB95 - "It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years [with] double the service of a hired man; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.

When you set a Hebrew slave free, you were to bless him liberally from your stores and supplies (if he was sold to you, since if he sold himself to you, he could end up serving for far longer than simply seven years). It doesn’t set an amount on how much this should be, but it does say liberally, which is the word עָנַק.

עָנַק anak

Serve as necklace

It’s a double infinitive here, meaning the word is used twice for extra emphasis, so it literally says, “You shall necklace him from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.” 

This doesn’t make much sense to our modern ears, but it’s an idiom that means hanging wealth around their neck, literally, to furnish them liberally. 

There were also some other reasons you had to let your slave go free, and that included permanent damage to them from beating them. Yes, you could beat your slaves, but if it caused bodily harm, you had to free them.

Exodus 21:26 NASB95 - "If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

Exodus 21:27 NASB95 - "And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

Exodus 21:20 NASB95 - "If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished.

Exodus 21:21 NASB95 - "If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property.

The word they translated as survives, here actually means to stand, which implies he recovered enough to be able to stand and be up and about for a day or two. So he recovers, but then he dies. Well, that’s not seen as the fault of the one who beat him, so the owner is not punished.

עָמַד

Stand

The word for punished, in case you were wondering, is נָקַם.

נָקַם

avenge, take vengeance

The blood of the slave had to be avenged, and as we see earlier in this chapter, that was the death penalty.

Exodus 21:12 NASB95 - "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.

An alternative to the death penalty was a major fine, literally whatever was demanded of him to redeem his life from the death penalty.

Exodus 21:30 NASB95 - "If a ransom is demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is demanded of him.

However, if the death did not occur immediately, and he was seen to recover, there would be no punishment. This only makes sense, since at that point, it could not be proven what the cause of death was, so punishing the one who beat this slave would be unjust. 

Now we are going to deal with the marriage of slaves. A man who marries his slave takes a concubine, which is indeed a full wife, and you can read more about this type of marriage in this post here link. If he no longer wanted her, he had to divorce her the same as any other wife, as you can read in this article about divorce link. 

There were extra laws given for her protection, since she did not have the protection of a betrothal, which is the definition of a concubine, as you can read in this article about betrothal link, and this article about the marriage covenant link.

Exodus 21:7 NASB95 - "If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do.

Exodus 21:8 NASB95 - "If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her.

Exodus 21:9 NASB95 - "If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.

Exodus 21:10 NASB95 - "If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.

Exodus 21:11 NASB95 - "If he will not do these three [things] for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without [payment of] money.

So, since she didn’t have the protections of a betrothal contract as a concubine, God put some extra protections into the law just for her. If she had a marriage contract, it would already contain all these things and then some, so there was no need for God to say anything regarding regular marriage. Concubines, however, were unprotected, hence these laws. 

He can’t sell her as a slave; he has to provide for her even if he takes another wife, and if he does not do these three things, he would be required to divorce her by the judges of that day, and it would not be required that she be redeemed for her to be divorced (without payment of money). Her master’s investment in her would simply be lost because she was no longer simply a slave; she was his wife. 

Deuteronomy 21:10 NASB95 - "When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive,

Deuteronomy 21:11 NASB95 - and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself,

Deuteronomy 21:12 NASB95 - then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.

Deuteronomy 21:13 NASB95 - "She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

Deuteronomy 21:14 NASB95 - "It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not mistreat her, because you have humbled her.

These rules are pretty much the same as the ones we saw earlier. Once she is a man’s wife, she must be divorced legally, and he cannot return her to simply being his slave again. The word for mistreat carries more connotation about enslaving than it does abuse.

עָמַר

Bind sheaves, deal tyrannically with

Once you have married this woman, whether she was a slave or not, you cannot force her to be your slave again. You must divorce her and let her go free because you have made her become your wife.

Basically, God was closing every possible loophole for the practice of using a woman for sex and then discarding her, as I go over in more depth in the article on sex outside of marriage link. Spoiler: it’s wrong.

Exodus 21:2 NASB95 - "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.

Exodus 21:3 NASB95 - "If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

Exodus 21:4 NASB95 - "If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.

Exodus 21:5 NASB95 - "But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

Exodus 21:6 NASB95 - 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.

In theory, if the wife given to the man here was a Hebrew slave, she would also go free after seven years, which seems to indicate that she is a foreign slave. This would be why she wouldn’t be freed when her husband was, and also why his children would remain with his former master. If they were Israelites, they would have been freed along with him because Israelites could not be kept as permanent slaves, whether male or female. 

Deuteronomy 15:12 NASB95 - "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.

Deuteronomy 15:16 NASB95 - "It shall come about if he says to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you;

Deuteronomy 15:17 NASB95 - then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.

So, if the man chooses to leave and she is a foreign slave woman, it requires him to divorce her. If he wanted to keep her as his wife, it would require him to become a permanent slave. The only way this scenario would be possible with the rules surrounding Hebrew slaves, both male and female, is if the wife were a foreign woman.  

One other note is that a Hebrew could sell themselves to a foreigner, but they could not be sold by their master to a foreigner. We’ve seen that several times in the laws we’ve looked at, so if a Hebrew slave was going to be sold, it must be to another Hebrew, which would guarantee their release in the seventh year or the Jubilee year. 

Leviticus 25:41 NASB95 - 'He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers.

Leviticus 25:42 NASB95 - 'For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold [in] a slave sale.

Also, if any of the other conditions were met for release, they would be released as they were supposed to be. 

Deuteronomy 23:15 NASB95 - "You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.

Deuteronomy 23:16 NASB95 - "He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him.

This is one of those random and out-of-the-blue laws that exist outside of the context of the laws around it, so context doesn’t help us much here. There are several clues within the passage itself that give us several clues, however. First, it’s important to note that the law already provided for release if bodily injury occurred from a beating, as in you lost part of your body due to abuse. The next thing to note is that there was a prescribed release after 7 years for Hebrew slaves, and if they belonged to a foreigner who was living in the land, every 50 years. 

Next, understand that these laws were addressed to the men of Israel as a whole, so when God says “you,” He might as well be saying “you, Israel.” You Israel shall not hand over a slave who has escaped from his master to you Israel. 

In other words, it sounds like an instruction regarding slaves who escaped from a foreigner outside of the land and took up residence within the land of Israel. They were not to extradite them out of Israel and return them to their masters. Israel already had a release policy regarding their own slaves, and most of those who were their slaves were there because they were so poor they had no other choice. Running away would be pointless, especially since at the end of their service, they would be given wages. 

Nothing at all is said on the topic of an Israelite capturing and returning a foreign slave to his household if he wanted to. I couldn’t find anything on the topic, so presumably, they would be allowed to. Otherwise, nothing was keeping all the prisoners of war from simply walking away and taking up residence in the land of Israel, which we see in many places was not done. Just my thoughts on the matter.    

1 Kings 9:20 NASB95 — As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,

1 Kings 9:21 NASB95 — their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel were unable to destroy utterly, from them Solomon levied forced laborers, even to this day.

1 Kings 9:22 NASB95 — But Solomon did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

Solomon made slaves out of foreign people who were dwelling in the land, and clearly, they could not just escape to the land because they were already there. Again, this makes me think that those instructions were for out-of-country slaves who escaped and sought refuge within their borders.

Slaves in the Modern Context, and the Application for Us

What is the point of understanding slavery in the Bible? 

Well, to put it quite simply, it has a role to play in marriage here on earth, and our marriage to Jesus that is yet to come. We are called slaves or bondservants of God, and as we’ve seen, that sort of service is one we can simply walk away from. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be consequences, but we can do it. God might come after us to try to get us to return to Him, but we do have a choice. However, as long as we are committed to Him, we are His slaves to perform whatever He asks of us. 

The same is true of marriage, where we find husbands called masters, taking wives, and wives being given to them. Wives are listed under the husband’s property in the tenth commandment, so there’s not a discussion about how much a wife belongs to and is owned by her husband.

Exodus 20:17 NASB95 - "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

A husband has obligations to his wife, even more so after what Paul said in the New Testament, but his wife is indeed owned by him. 

Don’t get upset at me, I’m simply reporting what the Bible says. 

Take it up with the author. 

I am constantly puzzled by those who seek to follow God but don’t like what the Bible says, so they seek to change it. What is the point of following God if you aren’t going to do what He says?

Either you are following Him or you aren’t, and either you believe the Bible is His word or you don’t, but you have nothing to fear from the Truth. So, if you think the Bible is the word of God, great! Don’t try to change it! 

If you don’t like it, then don’t even bother with it in the first place. Just don’t try to change it, and be honest with yourself that you are making up your own god and your own religion. Changing His word is a very bad idea, so take His word for what it says or leave it. You don’t have to follow it if you don’t want to, but it is required if you are going to be one of His children. 

Deuteronomy 12:32 NASB95 - "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.

Deuteronomy 4:2 NASB95 - "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Proverbs 30:5 NASB95 - Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Proverbs 30:6 NASB95 - Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

Revelation 22:18 NASB95 - I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;

Revelation 22:19 NASB95 - and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

God takes His word very seriously! We should as well, so if you disagree with something written in the Bible, you can explain it away, which is a bad idea, or you can adjust your beliefs to accommodate the truth. I want to be very clear here. You can explain away or excuse anything using a few verses taken out of context. An old saying goes, “I can prove all things through a verse taken out of context.”  

It’s true!

Utilizing the Bible, people have even excused abortion.

I’m dead serious.

The thing is, as the slaves of God, our job isn’t to make His words comfortable; it’s to be obedient to them. Regardless of how many sacrifices we make, of how many good deeds we do in His name, none of that matters if we aren’t obedient! 

All God really asks of us is obedience!

1 Samuel 15:22 NASB95 - Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, [And] to heed than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:23 NASB95 - "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from [being] king."

Hosea 6:6 NASB95 - For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Deuteronomy 10:12 NASB95 - "Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

Deuteronomy 10:13 NASB95 - [and] to keep the LORD'S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

John 14:15 NASB95 - "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 NASB95 - The conclusion, when all has been heard, [is:] fear God and keep His commandments, because this [applies to] every person.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 NASB95 - For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

God simply requires our obedience to His commands because we are His slaves.

Romans 6:22 NASB95 - But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB95 - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:20 NASB95 - For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Romans 6:16 NASB95 - 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?

Romans 6:17 NASB95 - But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

Romans 6:18 NASB95 - and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

There's a little more to it than that, however, and it plays into the other ways we relate to God. He is our Master, our Friend, our Father, elder brother (in inheritance), and our Husband all in one, and the way we relate to him depends on us and the way we live our lives. We are slaves in the sense that we have been purchased and exist to do His will; we are sons in the sense that we have been born of the spirit as heirs to the promise; we are friends in the sense that we walk with God in a personal relationship; and we are the future bride in the sense that He will take the church to be His bride. 

All of this ties in perfectly with the marriage relationship of a man and a woman, but I'll get into that more in the article A Biblical Marriage link. 

John 15:14 NASB95 — “You are My friends if you do what I command you.

John 15:15 NASB95 — “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

If we are obedient as slaves, He promises to walk with us as friends, and our primary identity will no longer be as slaves but as His friends, even though we still serve Him. 

Romans 8:14 NASB95 — For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Romans 8:15 NASB95 — 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!”

Romans 8:16 NASB95 — The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

Romans 8:17 NASB95 — and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

We did not receive a spirit of fearful slavery—we were liberated from that because that is the sort of slavery sin brings about. We died to that, and we are no longer slaves to sin. Rather, we are slaves to righteousness now, slaves of God as well as His sons, because we obey not out of fear but out of love. 

Exodus 21:5 NASB95 — “But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’

We are choosing to remain as slaves of God, not because we are afraid, but because we love Him and we are His sons and His friends. Neither one of those things means we no longer serve Him, but now our service is out of love rather than fear or evil desire, as it was when we were slaves of sin. We have been set free from sin, fear, and death; set free to serve God in liberty and peace. He is still our master, just as the man who takes a wife is still the master of his wife, but the relationship is not one of fear, and the obedience comes from our love for Him.  

We serve Him as slaves, we belong to Him as Sons and collectively as the Bride, we are joined to Him by covenant as the Bride, and we walk with Him in love and understanding as Friends, in full trust of who He is and what He is doing. Slaves serve because they have no other choice; sons, wives, and friends serve because they love the one whom they serve. That's a major difference indeed.

As His slaves purchased from our old master, God expects us to be obedient to Him, but as His sons through adoption, He also wants a relationship with us. We have a share in the inheritance Jesus is given because God was gracious enough to adopt us as His sons. So while we are the slaves of God, our identity is as His family. That's pretty awesome!