“We are descendants ¹  of Abraham,” they replied, ²  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ³  ‘You will become free’?”

But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. ¹  Afterward they will come out with many possessions.

and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men.

If a man is found kidnapping a person from among his fellow Israelites, ¹  and regards him as mere property ²  and sells him, that kidnapper ³  must die. In this way you will purge ⁴  evil from among you.

For you put up with ¹  it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly ²  toward you, if someone strikes you in the face.

I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. ¹  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to ²  the Egyptians.

And now you are planning ¹  to enslave ²  the people ³  of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the Lord your God?

When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, ¹  and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

Yes, your land lies in ruins; it is desolate and devastated. ¹  But now you will be too small to hold your residents, and those who devoured you will be far away.

No, this is the kind of fast I want. ¹  I want you ²  to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, ³  and to break every burdensome yoke.

I will make you serve your enemies ¹  in a land that you know nothing about. For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

But later ¹  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ² 

We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ¹  a pair of sandals ²  for the needy! We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ³ 

But I will punish ¹  the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God, ‘and after these things they will come out of there ²  and worship ³  me in this place.’ ⁴ 

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

“All things are lawful for me” ¹  – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything.

But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound. ¹  God has called you in peace.

Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

These things may be treated as an allegory, ¹  for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.