Exodus 21 Hebrew Slaves

[seekeroftruth]

Exodus 21:“These are the laws you are to set before them:

Hebrew Servants
2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges.[a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

7 “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. 8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself,(b) he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. 9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. 10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.​

a. Exodus 21:6 Or before God
b. Exodus 21:8 Or master so that he does not choose her

Oh my.... I did not recall that "how to treat your slave" came directly after the 10 Commandments. Remember, the 2 million chose to stop hanging around the base of the mountain. They sent Moses up to talk to God.... then relay it to Aaron.... to relay it to them... meanwhile they went about the business of being humans.

These comment are from blueletterbible.org.

There were four basic ways a Hebrew might become a slave to another Hebrew.

- In extreme poverty, they might sell their liberty (Leviticus 25:39).
- A father might sell his children into servitude (Exodus 21:7).
- In the case of bankruptcy, a man might become servant to his creditors (2 Kings 4:1).
- If a thief had nothing with which to pay proper restitution (Exodus 22:3-4).​

In such cases, the servitude was never obligated to be life-long. The Hebrew servant worked for six years and then was set free. At the end of the six years, went out with what he came in with. If the master provided a wife (and therefore children), the wife and children had to stay with the master or be redeemed.​

The maid-servant was bought, but not really to be a slave, but to be the master's wife or the wife of the master's son one day.

He shall let her be redeemed: If her master did not marry her, or decided not to give her to his son, the master was still obligated to respect her rights under God's law.

He shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights: The idea of women - and women of lower classes - having such rights, respected by God and society was revolutionary in an age when women were usually regarded as property.​

Of course verses 7-11 are of particular interest to me.... being a woman.... So further inquiries turned up something in GodVine.

He shall give her the same dowry he would give to one of his own daughters. From these laws we learn, that if a man's son married his servant, by his father's consent, the father was obliged to treat her in every respect as a daughter; and if the son married another woman, as it appears he might do, Exodus 21:10, he was obliged to make no abatement in the privileges of the first wife, either in her food, raiment, or duty of marriage. The word ענתה onathah, here, is the same with St. Paul's οφειλομενην ευνοιαν, the marriage debt, and with the ὁμιλιαν of the Septuagint, which signifies the cohabitation of man and wife.​

1. Her food, שארה sheerah, her flesh, for she must not, like a common slave, be fed merely on vegetables.

2. Her raiment - her private wardrobe, with all occasional necessary additions. And,

3. The marriage debt - a due proportion of the husband's time and company.​

I think, based on the titles of some of the searches lurking out there on these verses, that I should remember that these laws were given by God to over 2 million Israelites who had spent their entire lives as slaves. Slavery as a way of life was all they knew. These laws were probably a great upgrade to the Egyptian laws concerning their welfare and futures.

 

[ProximaCentauri]

You do realize that that all this is simply the writings of bronze-age nomadic tribes claiming these rules came from 'god', or perhaps you don't. Besides, slavery and selling one's daughter into what amounted to sexual slavery, they also regularly screwed their own daughters, and occasionally sacrificed them to the 'gods'.

 

[This_person]

Besides slavery and selling one's daughter into what amounted to sexual slavery, they also regularly screwed their own daughters, and occasionally sacrificed them to the 'gods'.

Source?

 

[seekeroftruth]

You do realize that that all this is simply the writings of bronze-age nomadic tribes claiming these rules came from 'god', or perhaps you don't. Besides, slavery and selling one's daughter into what amounted to sexual slavery, they also regularly screwed their own daughters, and occasionally sacrificed them to the 'gods'.

According to easy google search, the bronze age was about 3150 BC, and Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt about 1393-1273 BC.

In the past months we have learned that in Genesis 19 Lot's daughters did indeed get Lot drunk and slept with him. The date of the destruction of Sodom is not even close to certain with a google search. This particular site says it occurred around 2067-2066.

So your dates are off and we've already learned that the daughters slept with Lot, not the other way around. If you hang around until we get to it, you'll see what God has to say about sacrifice of children in the Book of Jeremiah [around 641 BC].

Better yet, since I have the verse already in my browser, here it is....

Jeremiah 19:1 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6 So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.​

So it's not our God who would have parents abuse their children.

So you are welcome to stay and learn, but please check your sources. Although your rude comments do increase the number of hits these verses get.

 

[ProximaCentauri]

According to easy google search, the bronze age was about 3150 BC, and Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt about 1393-1273 BC.

In the past months we have learned that in Genesis 19 Lot's daughters did indeed get Lot drunk and slept with him. The date of the destruction of Sodom is not even close to certain with a google search. This particular site says it occurred around 2067-2066.

So your dates are off and we've already learned that the daughters slept with Lot, not the other way around. If you hang around until we get to it, you'll see what God has to say about sacrifice of children in the Book of Jeremiah [around 641 BC].

Better yet, since I have the verse already in my browser, here it is....

Jeremiah 19:1 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6 So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.​

So it's not our God who would have parents abuse their children.

So you are welcome to stay and learn, but please check your sources. Although your rude comments do increase the number of hits these verses get.

HC, please realize the bronze age in the middle-eastern region is a period of roughly 2000 years (3200-1200BC).

The early Israelite tribes were polytheistic... i.e. worshiped multiple gods. Yahweh was among these, - thought to be a child of the Canaanite creator goddess Elyon . Interesting stuff when you get into the research...

There is little doubt among scholars that early Israelites sacrificed children to their deities, including Yahweh.

As you know, Yahweh instructs the murder of many children in the bible. In his more mellow moods he instructs one to beat one’s unruly children with a rod. Do you perhaps not consider this abusive? How about holding a knife to your child's throat, willing to kill him/her on command? Or, Jephthah sacrificing his daughter for Yahweh's favor in battle?

You know, you necessarily do not need to be a Biblical literalist to have faith. Many biblical scholars are not literalists but have faith nonetheless. I suppose it makes Yahweh easier to stomach when you realize he's only the manifestation of barbarous Israelites.

 

[seekeroftruth]

HC, please realize the bronze age in the middle-eastern region is a period of roughly 2000 years (3200-1200BC).

The early Israelite tribes were polytheistic... i.e. worshiped multiple gods. Yahweh was among these, - thought to be a child of the Canaanite creator goddess Elyon . Interesting stuff when you get into the research...

There is little doubt among scholars that early Israelites sacrificed children to their deities, including Yahweh.

As you know, Yahweh instructs the murder of many children in the bible. In his more mellow moods he instructs one to beat one’s unruly children with a rod. Do you perhaps not consider this abusive? How about holding a knife to your child's throat, willing to kill him/her on command? Or, Jephthah sacrificing his daughter for Yahweh's favor in battle?

You know, you necessarily do not need to be a Biblical literalist to have faith. Many biblical scholars are not literalists but have faith nonetheless. I suppose it makes Yahweh easier to stomach when you realize he's only the manifestation of barbarous Israelites.

So what you're saying is.... "the Israelites, just like the rest of the world, were miserable mean horrible human beings" and God had to give them laws or rules to live by so they didn't kill each other off? Well on that we agree.

 

[This_person]

You do realize that that all this is simply the writings of bronze-age nomadic tribes claiming these rules came from 'god', or perhaps you don't. Besides, slavery and selling one's daughter into what amounted to sexual slavery, they also regularly screwed their own daughters, and occasionally sacrificed them to the 'gods'.

From where do you get that the people of this writing "regularly screwed their own daughters, and occasionally sacrificed them to the 'gods'"? I think both of those claims are extreme lies, and I've asked for your source, and you are unable to provide, which means you also know they are lies.