Leviticus 25:39–46

The Law Concerning Slavery

³⁹‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. ⁴⁰As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹And then he shall depart from you—he and his children ^lwith him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. ⁴²For they are ^mMy servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³ⁿYou shall not rule over him ^owith ³rigor, but you ^pshall fear your God. ⁴⁴And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. ⁴⁵Moreover you may buy ^qthe children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. ⁴⁶And ^ryou may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.