Leviticus 25:39

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

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

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Exod 21:2 : 2 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.
  • 1 Kgs 9:22 : 22 Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces.
  • 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.”
  • Neh 5:5 : 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.”
  • Lev 25:46 : 46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly.
  • Deut 15:12-14 : 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.
  • 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.
  • Jer 25:14 : 14 For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation too. I will repay them for all they have done!’”
  • Jer 27:7 : 7 All nations must serve him and his son and grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon.
  • Jer 30:8 : 8 When the time for them to be rescued comes,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,“I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. I will deliver you from captivity. Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.
  • Jer 34:14 : 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 1:14 : 14 They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

Similar Verses (AI)

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

  • Lev 25:40-55
    16 verses
    86%

    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.

    43You 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.

    45Also 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.

    46You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly.

    47“‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member of a foreigner’s family,

    48after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him,

    49or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives– his family– may redeem him, or if he prospers he may redeem himself.

    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,

    55because the Israelites are my own servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

  • Deut 15:11-16
    6 verses
    82%

    11There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open your hand to your fellow Israelites who are needy and poor in your land.

    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,

  • Lev 25:24-28
    5 verses
    80%

    24In all your landed property you must provide for the right of redemption of the land.

    25“‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold.

    26If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers and gains enough for its redemption,

    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.

  • Deut 24:14-15
    2 verses
    79%

    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.

    15You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

  • Lev 25:35-38
    4 verses
    79%

    35Debt and Slave Regulations“‘If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident.

    36Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you.

    37You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit.

    38I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan– to be your God.

  • Exod 21:2
    78%

    2Hebrew 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.

  • Jer 34:14
    77%

    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.

  • Lev 25:14-15
    2 verses
    77%

    14If you make a sale to your fellow citizen or buy from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother.

    15You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left.

  • Deut 15:2-3
    2 verses
    77%

    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.”

    3You may exact payment from a foreigner, but whatever your fellow Israelite owes you, you must remit.

  • Deut 23:15-16
    2 verses
    76%

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

    16Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him.

  • Jer 34:9
    76%

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

  • Exod 22:25
    75%

    25“If you lend money to any of my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender to him; do not charge him interest.

  • Deut 15:7
    74%

    7The Spirit of Liberality If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the LORD your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition.

  • Deut 15:9
    74%

    9Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite and you do not lend him anything; he will cry out to the LORD against you and you will be regarded as having sinned.

  • Deut 24:18
    73%

    18Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do all this.

  • Deut 15:18
    73%

    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.

  • Deut 24:22
    73%

    22Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.

  • Deut 23:19
    72%

    19Respect for Others’ Property You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest.

  • Exod 21:5
    72%

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