In Deuteronomy the laws about slaves that we also see in Exodus are repeated. They certainly have a definite meaning in the context of the clan-tribal society in which they arose...
In Deuteronomy the laws about slaves that we also see in Exodus are repeated. They certainly have a definite meaning in the context of the clan-tribal society in which they arose. The point is that debt slavery could easily lead to very serious property stratification, and then social stratification, which, under conditions of predominantly communal landholding, would inevitably have produced social instability. Slaves who, in the end, would have had nothing left to lose, and in large numbers besides, could have posed a serious public danger.
Contrary to ideas that are fairly widespread today, slave labor in antiquity, when it was effective at all, was effective only in certain cases and under very definite conditions, which did not exist in Hebrew society. That is why mass slaveholding was a relatively uncommon and rather local phenomenon in antiquity. The Hebrews never had it. In Hebrew society, slavery always remained domestic and patriarchal, when a slave was regarded as a member of the household, though not an equal one. His status resembled that of an underage member of the family or of a large patriarchal clan.
It is no accident that in Hebrew "slave" and "adolescent" are called by the same word. If slavery had become mass slavery, the consequences would have been completely unpredictable. The laws about slaves made it possible to avoid this.
There was, however, something else as well: the understanding that a person is not simply an element of society, which completely defines him and his existence. A person cannot and must not be a slave of the socioeconomic order in which he has to live. Not even because that order is bad, although in the fallen world it cannot be good in any case; here the only possible choice is between bad and very bad.
A person is first of all the image of God, and only afterward a subject of any impersonal relations whatever. Debts, of course, must be repaid, but a person must not lose himself as the image of God, nor his freedom before God and people, because of debts that for some objective reason he cannot repay. Objective because a normal, healthy person is able in seven years to work off any debt that bears at least some relation to his abilities. If he has not managed to do this in seven years, then he will not manage to do it later either. To leave a person a slave until the end of his life means to ignore the image of God in him, and this the Torah naturally cannot allow. Hence the compromise it proposes between the demands of society and the freedom a person needs for a full life before God.
15 Orders concerning the release of debts every seventh year, Deu 15:1-6.
Concerning lending, Deu 15:7-11.
Concerning the release of servants, Deu 15:12-18.
Concerning the firstlings, Deu 15:19-23.
15:1 At the end - That is, in the last year of the seven, as is, most evident from Deu 15:9.And this year of release, as it is, called below, Deu 15:9, is the same with the sabbatical year, Exo 23:11.
15:2 Every creditor - Here is, a law for poor, insolvent debtors.Every seventh year was a year of release, when among other acts of grace, this was one, that every Israelite, who had borrowed money, and had not been able to pay it before, should this year be released from it. And tho' if he was able, he was bound in conscience to pay it afterwards, yet it could not be recovered by law. His brother - This is added to limit the word neighbour, which is more general, unto a brother, in nation and religion, an Israelite. The Lord's release - Or, a release for the Lord, in obedience to his command, for his honour, and as an acknowledgment of his right in your estates, and of his kindness in giving and continuing them to you.
15:4 Save when there shall be no poor - The words may be rendered thus, as in the margin of our Bibles, To the end that there be no poor among you. And so they contain a reason of this law, namely, that none be impoverished and ruined by a rigid exaction of debts.
15:8 Open thine hand wide - That is, deal bountifully and liberally with him.
15:9 Beware - Suppress the first risings of such uncharitableness.It be sin - That is, it be charged upon thee as a sin.
15:10 Thine heart shall not be grieved - That is, thou shalt give, not only with an open hand, but with a willing and chearful mind, without which thy very charity is uncharitable, and not accepted by God.
15:11 The poor shall never cease - God by his providence will so order it, partly for the punishment of your disobedience, and partly for the trial and exercise of your obedience to him and charity to your brother.
15:12 If thy brother be sold - Either by himself, or his parents, or as a criminal. Six years - To be computed from the beginning of his servitude, which is every where limited to the space of six years.
15:15 The Lord redeemed thee - And brought thee out with riches, which because they would not, God gave thee as a just recompense for thy service; and therefore thou shalt follow his example, and send out thy servant furnished with all convenient provisions.
15:17 For ever - All the time of his life, or, at least, 'till the year of jubilee. Likewise - That is, either dismiss her with plenty, or engage her to perpetual servitude, in the same manner and by the same rites.
15:19 All the firstling males thou shalt sanctify - Giving them to God on the eighth day. And thou shalt do no work with the female firstlings of the cow, nor shear those of the sheep. Even these must be offered to God as peace - offerings, or used in a religious feast.
15:20 Year by year - Namely, in the solemn feasts which returned upon them every year.