At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
Ver. 14. At the end of seven years let ye go.] He layeth before them God's law, which they had transgressed, out of Exo 21:2 Deuteronomy 15:12. A law so full of equity, humanity, and benignity, that the more honest heathens approved and observed it, as the Romans and Athenians. Only these latter had an action at law (which they called ‘ Aποστασιον) for a master against his servant, ungrateful for his manumission, and not doing his duty to his master, for such were again to be made bondslaves, if the crime could be proved against them. a
a Val. Max., lib. ii. cap. 1.