And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
If thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold. The last extremity of an insolvent debtor, when his house or land was not sufficient to cancel his debt, was to be sold as a slave, with his family (Leviticus 25:39; 2 Kings 4:1; Nehemiah 5:1-13; Job 24:9; Matthew 18:25). The term of servitude could not last beyond six years: they obtained their freedom either after six years from the time of their sale, or before the end of the seventh year; and at the year of jubilee such slaves were emancipated although their six years of service were not completed.
The terms, "thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman," are special. "Thy brother" is applied to a stranger (Leviticus 25:35). Hebrew man and Hebrew woman indicates a person of foreign origin, not native Israelite-one who, by long residence in Canaan, was admitted to the ordinary rights and privileges of Hebrews, but belonged to a special and distinct class of servants-not connected with pagandom, and yet not to be regarded as proper Israelites; but born in a state of servitude, and constituting a middle class between the impoverished Israelites and the proper servants bought of pagan-the class to which would belong those descended from a maid-servant given in marriage by the master to his servant (Exodus 31:5).
Saalschutz further considers this case limited to an actual maid-servant-one who has been previously such, and whom her owner sells to another. It points to a foreign slave; and consequently the statute here is different from that in Exodus 21:7-16, which relates to a free Hebrew woman.
Michaelis ('Comment.,' 2:, sec. 88) pronounces the legal provision detailed in this passage as an improvement on the spirit of the Jewish code. But, on Saalschutz' hypothesis, this and the law in Exodus provide for persons in totally different circumstances.