Exodus 21:2

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Hebrew Servants“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything.

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Deut 15:12-15 : 12 Release of Debt Slaves If your fellow Hebrew– whether male or female– is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant go free. 13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 14 You must supply them generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress– as the LORD your God has blessed you, you must give to them. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing today.
  • Deut 15:18 : 18 You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice the time of a hired worker; the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.
  • Neh 5:1-5 : 1 Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. 2 There were those who said,“With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.” 3 There were others who said,“We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.” 4 Then there were those who said,“We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards. 5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, and our children are just like their children, still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.”
  • Neh 5:8 : 8 I said to them,“To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.
  • Jer 34:8-9 : 8 The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves The LORD spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to grant their slaves their freedom. 9 Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. 10 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. 11 But later they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. 12 The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah, 13 “The LORD God of Israel has a message for you.‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. It stipulated, 14 “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me. 15 Recently, however, you yourselves showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. 16 But then you turned right around and showed that you did not honor me. Each of you took back your male and female slaves whom you had freed as they desired, and you forced them to be your slaves again. 17 So I, the LORD, say:“You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the LORD, affirm it! I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you.
  • Matt 18:25 : 25 Because he was not able to repay it, the lord ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be made.
  • 1 Cor 6:20 : 20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
  • Deut 31:10 : 10 He commanded them:“At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, at the Feast of Shelters,
  • 2 Kgs 4:1 : 1 Elisha Helps a Widow and Her Sons Now a wife of one of the prophets appealed to Elisha for help, saying,“Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the LORD. Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”
  • Gen 27:28 : 28 May God give you the dew of the sky and the richness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.
  • Gen 27:36 : 36 Esau exclaimed,“‘Jacob is the right name for him! He has tripped me up two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked,“Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”
  • Exod 12:44 : 44 But everyone’s servant who is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it.
  • Exod 22:3 : 3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft.
  • Lev 25:39-45 : 39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. 40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 41 but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. 42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. 43 You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God. 44 “‘As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you– you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. 45 Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.
  • Deut 15:1 : 1 Release for Debt Slaves At the end of every seven years you must declare a cancellation of debts.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Deut 15:12-18
    7 verses
    88%

    12Release of Debt Slaves If your fellow Hebrew– whether male or female– is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant go free.

    13If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed.

    14You must supply them generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress– as the LORD your God has blessed you, you must give to them.

    15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing today.

    16However, if the servant says to you,“I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,

    17you shall take an awl and pierce a hole through his ear to the door. Then he will become your servant permanently(this applies to your female servant as well).

    18You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice the time of a hired worker; the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.

  • Jer 34:14
    82%

    14“Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me.

  • Exod 21:3-8
    6 verses
    81%

    3If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.

    4If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

    5But if the servant should declare,‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’

    6then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

    7“If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.

    8If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her.

  • Lev 25:50-54
    5 verses
    80%

    50He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him.

    51If there are still many years, in keeping with them he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption,

    52but if only a few years remain until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption.

    53He must be with the one who bought him like a yearly hired worker. The one who bought him must not rule over him harshly in your sight.

    54If, however, he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free in the jubilee year, he and his children with him,

  • Lev 25:39-42
    4 verses
    79%

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

    40He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee,

    41but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors.

    42Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale.

  • Exod 21:26-27
    2 verses
    79%

    26“If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.

    27If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

  • Exod 21:11
    78%

    11If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

  • Jer 34:9-10
    2 verses
    78%

    9Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved.

    10All 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.

  • Exod 21:1
    77%

    1The Decisions“These are the decisions that you will set before them:

  • Deut 21:14
    76%

    14If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell her; you must not take advantage of her, since you have already humiliated her.

  • Deut 15:1-2
    2 verses
    75%

    1Release for Debt Slaves At the end of every seven years you must declare a cancellation of debts.

    2This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, for it is to be recognized as“the LORD’s cancellation of debts.”

  • Deut 23:15
    74%

    15Purity in the Treatment of the Nonprivileged You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you.

  • Lev 25:44
    74%

    44“‘As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you– you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you.

  • Exod 21:20-21
    2 verses
    74%

    20“If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow, he will surely be punished.

    21However, if the injured servant survives one or two days, the owner will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss.

  • Acts 7:7
    73%

    7But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God,‘and after these things they will come out of there and worship me in this place.’

  • Lev 25:27-28
    2 verses
    73%

    27he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, refund the balance to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property.

    28If he has not prospered enough to refund a balance to him, then what he sold will belong to the one who bought it until the jubilee year, but it must revert in the jubilee and the original owner may return to his property.

  • 1 Cor 7:21-23
    3 verses
    73%

    21Were you called as a slave? Do not worry about it. But if indeed you are able to be free, make the most of the opportunity.

    22For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. In the same way, the one who was called as a free person is Christ’s slave.

    23You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men.

  • Lev 25:6
    72%

    6You may have the Sabbath produce of the land to eat– you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you,

  • Exod 20:10
    72%

    10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates.

  • Exod 12:44
    72%

    44But everyone’s servant who is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it.

  • Deut 24:14
    72%

    14You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages.

  • Exod 23:10
    71%

    10Sabbaths and Feasts“For six years you are to sow your land and gather in its produce.

  • Deut 5:14
    71%

    14but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the resident foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest.

  • Exod 21:32
    71%

    32If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned.

  • Exod 21:16
    71%

    16“Whoever kidnaps someone and sells him, or is caught still holding him, must surely be put to death.