But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of ¹  the money that was returned in our sacks last time. ²  He wants to capture us, ³  make us slaves, and take ⁴  our donkeys!”

Judah replied, “What can we say ¹  to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? ²  God has exposed the sin of your servants! ³  We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Now a wife of one of the prophets ¹  appealed ²  to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. ³  Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”

Small and great are ¹  there, and the slave is free ²  from his master. ³ 

So ¹  he called one of the slaves ²  and asked what was happening.

You may have the Sabbath produce ¹  of the land to eat – you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you, ² 

Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; ¹  the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. ² 

Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; ¹  the Israelites served as his soldiers, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. ² 

All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹ 

“I am about to punish them ¹  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

We know that ¹  our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, ²  so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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.

For we have been sold ¹  – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”

So Abimelech gave ¹  sheep, cattle, and male and female servants to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.

I ¹  have also heard ²  the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, ³  and I have remembered my covenant. ⁴ 

Those ¹  of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their ²  servants and livestock into the houses,

but those ¹  who did not take ²  the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle ³  in the field.

“‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. ¹ 

Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.