That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
That none should serve himself ... of a Jew. The bond- servants were to be of the pagan, not of their Israelite Brethren. "If thy brother ... be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant: but as an hired servant ... unto the year of jubilee ... then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children ... for they are my servants, which I brought forth out of Egypt" (Leviticus 25:39-46).