Leviticus 25:39-55

Kindness for Poor Brothers

39 d "If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired servant and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 v Then he shall go out from you, e he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return f to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are g my servants, 1 whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 h You shall not rule over him i ruthlessly but j shall fear your God. 44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. 45 k You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. 46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel l you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

47 "If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and m your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, 48 then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin may n redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he o grows rich he may redeem himself. 50 He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be p rated as the time of a hired servant. 51 If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. 52 If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. 53 He shall treat him as a servant hired year by year. l He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed by these means, then q he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. 55 For it is r to me that the people of Israel are servants. 2 They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

  1. Cross References
    Exodus 21:2
    When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
    Deuteronomy 15:12
    If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
    1 Kings 9:22
    But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.
    2 Kings 4:1
    Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.
    Nehemiah 5:5
    Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.
  2. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:28
    But if he has not sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
  3. Cross References
    Exodus 21:3
    If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.
  4. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:13
    In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
    Leviticus 25:28
    But if he has not sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
  5. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:55
    For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
    Romans 6:22
    But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
    1 Corinthians 7:23
    You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
  6. Cross References
    Ephesians 6:9
    Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
    Colossians 4:1
    Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
  7. Cross References
    Exodus 1:13 - 14
    So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves
    Ezekiel 34:4
    The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
  8. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:17
    You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
    Leviticus 25:36
    Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.
  9. Cross References
    Isaiah 14:1 - 2
    For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
    Isaiah 56:3
    Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, "The Lord will surely separate me from his people"; and let not the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree.
    Isaiah 56:6
    And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant -
  10. Cross References
    Exodus 1:13 - 14
    So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves
    Ezekiel 34:4
    The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
  11. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:25
    If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.
    Leviticus 25:35
    If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.
    Leviticus 25:39
    If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:
  12. Cross References
    Nehemiah 5:1 - 5
    Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.
  13. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:26
    If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it.
    Leviticus 25:47
    If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan.
  14. Cross References
    Job 7:1
    Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
    Isaiah 16:14
    But now the Lord has spoken, saying, "In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.
    Isaiah 21:16
    For thus the Lord said to me, "Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
  15. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:46
    You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
  16. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:41
    Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers.
    Exodus 21:2 - 3
    When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
  17. Cross References
    Leviticus 25:42
    For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.