Leviticus 25:40-43

25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. 25:42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. 25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.


tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

tn Heb “may go out from you.”

tn Heb “fathers.”

tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”