If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant. Though slavery was recognized in Israel, and the mention of purchase-money here seems to point to the procuring of a slave, it must not be imagined that Hebrew servitude bore any resemblance to the ancient slavery of the Greeks and Romans, or of the modern slavery in America. The Hebrew language has no word for a slave who was absolutely in the power or at the mercy of an owner. х `ebed (H5650), servant, properly signifies labourer; and so far from being a term implying degradation or infamy, it was applied to the chosen people, to Moses, to the prophets and kings, as well as to the Messiah. Accordingly it is rendered in the Septuagint by pais (G3816), not doulos (G1401), which denotes one bound.] Every Israelite was free-born; but servitude was permitted under certain restrictions: for a Hebrew might be reduced to the condition of a servant through poverty, debt, or crime.
Saalschutz ('Mosaische Recht') thinks that none of these are applicable to the present case. Founding on the singularity of the language, "buy an Hebrew servant," by which he understands, not a Hebrew for a servant, but a Hebrew already in a servile condition, he considers this law as enacted to regulate the interests of a special class of servants, intermediate between impoverished Israelites and pagan slaves-namely, the offspring of foreign servants, who had been born in Israelite families and incorporated with them by circumcision. The circumstances of such 'Hebrew servants,' when, from being home-born slaves, they passed into the service of another master, would, so far as concerned the length of service, be greatly benefited and improved by this regulation.
But it is against the view of Saalschutz, that, in the parallel passage of Deuteronomy 15:12, not х `ebed (H5650)] "servant," on which he lays so much stress, but "thy brother, an Hebrew man," occurs. Besides, it seems strange that an ordinance respecting such a special class of servants should have precedence, in this summary of legislative acts, of all statutes relating to the rights and privileges of Hebrews themselves. The х `Ibriy (H5680)] "Hebrew" servant is simply used in contradistinction to 'a foreign servant;' and while it may be conceded that the various passages which detail the rights of servants point to different classes of persons (see the notes at Leviticus 25:39-43; Leviticus 25:47-55; and Deuteronomy 15:12-16), the common view seems to be correct, that the present statute points to a genuine Hebrew servant.
Six years he shall serve - i:e., reckoning from the commencement of his service, irrespective of the Sabbatic year.
And in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing - at the end of six years he was entitled to freedom without redemption-money, or any compensation to his master for the loss of his services.