SLAVERY IN THE BIBLE

 THE TOUCHY MATTER OF SLAVERY IN THE BIBLE

Slavery in Israel in Bible times has a lot in common with modern day employment, with slaves having equal rights with their masters to rest days and protection against abuse under the law of God, such that if you maimed a slave you set him free. Also, if you had sexual relations with one you set her free. Enslavement like the one the Israelites experienced in their years in Egypt was prohibited in Israel under the law of God.

1. Slavery in Israel was essentially meant to deny non-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan equal rights to worship as they pleased. 

“When you approach a city to fight against it, you must offer it peace. And then if they accept your terms of peace and they surrender to you, and then all the people inhabiting it shall be forced labor for you, and they shall serve you. ... so that they may not teach you to do like all their detestable things that they do for their gods and thereby you sin against Yahweh your God." (Deuteronomy 20:10‭-‬11‭, ‬18 LEB)

2. Slaves were supposed to be bought if foreigners around or among them were selling them. 

“As for your slave and your slave woman who are yours, from the nations that are all around you, from them you may buy a slave or a slave woman. And you may buy also from the children of the temporary residents who are dwelling with you as aliens and from their clan who are with you, who have children in your land; indeed, they may be as property for you."(Leviticus 25:44‭-‬45 LEB)

3. Slaves sold to Israelites had equal rights to rest days.

"But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work—you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who is in your gates" (Exodus 20:10 LEB)

4. Slaves in Israel had protection against abuse under the law of God.

a) A slave's life was equal to that if his master.

"And if a man strikes his male slave or his female slave with the rod and he dies under his hand, he will surely be avenged."(Exodus 21:20 LEB)

b) If you maimed your slave you set him free. 

“And if a man strikes the eye of his male slave or the eye of his female slave and destroys it, he shall release him as free in place of his eye. And if he causes the tooth of his male slave or the tooth of his female slave to fall out, he will release him as free in place of his tooth." (Exodus 21:26‭-‬27 LEB)

c) f you had sexual relations with a slave you set her free. 

"and you see among the captives a woman beautiful in appearance, and you become attached to her and you want to take her as a wife, ... And then if you do not take delight in her, then you shall let her go to do whatever she wants, but you shall not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her."(Deuteronomy 21:11‭, ‬14 LEB)

5. Israelites could sell themselves as slaves (forced labor) when in debt, but in their case, they were not to be subjected to as much hard labor as non-Israelite slaves. They also had the option of going free in the seventh year or Jubilee year. 

"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing. ... [if he chooses not to go free,] his master will present him to God and bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve him forever."(Exodus 21:2‭, ‬6 LEB)

“And if your countryman who is with you becomes poor, and he is sold to you, you shall not treat him as a slave. He shall be with you like a hired worker, like a temporary resident; he shall work with you until the Year of Jubilee."(Leviticus 25:39‭-‬40 LEB)

CONCLUSION

People became slaves to Israelites when they considered it better to serve them than to quit the Promised Land for them. Also, slaves were acquired by Israelites because they were already in positions of servitude (through indebtedness or conquest). A slave in Israel however had rights, and their lives were equal to that of their masters. The perpetration of cruel enslavement, as was done in the trans-Atlantic trade in the name of the Bible, is therefore corruption rather than what the Bible teaches. Its legal dissolution came about through the work of Christians who pointed out that enslavement, like divorce, is not a Biblical injunction.

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