Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. ¹ 

Slaves, ¹  obey your human masters ²  with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ,

I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, ¹  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ² 

Three years later two of Shimei’s servants ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. Shimei was told, “Look, your servants are in Gath.”

cinnamon, spice, ¹  incense, perfumed ointment, ²  frankincense, ³  wine, olive oil and costly flour, ⁴  wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and four-wheeled carriages, ⁵  slaves and human lives. ⁶ 

Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. ¹ 

not like those who do their work only when someone is watching ¹  – as people-pleasers – but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. ² 

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

So Shimei got up, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to find his servants; Shimei went and brought back his servants from Gath.

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?

So he said, “Cursed ¹  be Canaan! ²  The lowest of slaves ³  he will be to his brothers.”

Joseph ¹  made all the people slaves ²  from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.

“If a man sells his daughter ¹  as a female servant, ²  she will not go out as the male servants do.

Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way.

The ¹  rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them.

and he begins to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards,

For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation ¹  too. I will repay them for all they have done!’” ² 

Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your clients; they exchanged slaves and bronze items for your merchandise.

“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 now, freed ¹  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ²  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.