² “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.

Release for Hebrew Slaves

¹² “If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant^[a] and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.

¹³ “When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.

¹⁸ “You must not consider it a hardship when you release your servants. Remember that for six years they have given you services worth double the wages of hired workers, and the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.

⁴⁴ But any slave who has been purchased may eat it if he has been circumcised.

Freedom for Hebrew Slaves

⁸ This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people, proclaiming freedom for the slaves. ⁹ He had ordered all the people to free their Hebrew slaves—both men and women. No one was to keep a fellow Judean in bondage. ¹⁰ The officials and all the people had obeyed the king’s command, ¹¹ but later they changed their minds. They took back the men and women they had freed, forcing them to be slaves again.

¹² So the Lord gave them this message through Jeremiah: ¹³ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors long ago when I rescued them from their slavery in Egypt. ¹⁴ I told them that every Hebrew slave must be freed after serving six years. But your ancestors paid no attention to me. ¹⁵ Recently you repented and did what was right, following my command. You freed your slaves and made a solemn covenant with me in the Temple that bears my name. ¹⁶ But now you have shrugged off your oath and defiled my name by taking back the men and women you had freed, forcing them to be slaves once again.

¹⁷ “Therefore, this is what the Lord says: Since you have not obeyed me by setting your countrymen free, I will set you free to be destroyed by war, disease, and famine. You will be an object of horror to all the nations of the earth.

⁸ At the meeting I said to them, “We are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them?” And they had nothing to say in their defense.

Nehemiah Defends the Oppressed

5 About this time some of the men and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. ² They were saying, “We have such large families. We need more food to survive.”

³ Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes to get food during the famine.”

⁴ And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. ⁵ We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.”

¹⁰ Then Moses gave them this command: “At the end of every seventh year, the Year of Release, during the Festival of Shelters,

Release for Debtors

15 “At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money.

³⁹ “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave. ⁴⁰ Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ At that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally allotted to their ancestors. ⁴² The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves. ⁴³ Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly.

⁴⁴ “However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. ⁴⁵ You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property,