(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Deuteronomy 15:12–18, “And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day. And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee; Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.”
There were no bankruptcy laws when Israel lived in the Promised Land. If someone reached the position where they couldn’t pay their debts that person would sell themselves as slaves to repay the debt. Sadly those conditions still apply to some people in some parts of the world today. If a person found themselves in severe financial conditions their first line of security would be to look to a relative to act as their redeemer (Leviticus 25:23–28, “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.”) Even with these generous conditions a person may have to sell themselves as a slave but only for seven years at the most. When the person who was sold as a slave was ready to return to their own land the master was expected to give that person many things to make sure that they weren’t going back into poverty. However, if a man became a slave then was married during his period of slavery he couldn’t expect to take his wife and children with him. In these circumstance a man could say that he wanted to stay with his wife and children and the master would be allowed to keep him. If a person wanted to remain a slave forever, his master would pierce his earn with a sharp tool and he could stay with his wife and children as long as he lived.
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