Leviticus 25:39–55

^39d“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. ^41vThen he shall go out from you, ^ehe and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ^fto the possession of his fathers. ⁴²For they are ^gmy servants,⁵ whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ^43hYou shall not rule over him ⁱruthlessly but ^jshall fear your God. ⁴⁴As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. ^45kYou may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. ⁴⁶You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel ^lyou shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

⁴⁷“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and ^myour brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, ⁴⁸then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹or his uncle or his cousin may ⁿredeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ^ogrows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be ^prated as the time of a hired worker. ⁵¹If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵²If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. ⁵³He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. ^lHe shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed by these means, then ^qhe and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵For it is ^rto me that the people of Israel are servants.⁶ They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.