Need help understanding this interesting Bible verse...  

Times and customs change. If you continue reading, you will find out that a slave could redeem him/herself, or a relative could do it for them. Someone sold that person into slavery. They were not just run down and forced into slavery. They either owed a great debt, or a relative sold them. There were also laws pertaining to the treatment of slaves or bondsmen. They were to be treated decently and fed and clothed properly. And, they were to be given every chance to redeem their freedom.

Shalom~Adoniah

What,what what! Two different wordings of the same bible verse! How can that be according to so many christians the bible has never been revised or reworded! (But we all know that's not true just like the bible).

What the verse means is the bible was written by a bunch of people who wanted to punish anyone who didn't believe in their religion. The bible was not written by god and it was not written through man by god.

This is a prime example of the futility of following bible verses literally. Alot of it is ancient history (or often debatable history), and customs that are outmoded in the present world.

If you you know the history of Israel, then you would find that hey were not allowed to have Israel slaves. They were all ment to be free. If they wanted to have slaves, they had to make use of the pagan nations, who did not serve God. Those who served God was intended to be free.

Slavery was already changed in the Bible, New Testiment. The Apostle Paul was against slavery and slowly more and more slaves became free. If you study slavery in thase time, you would find that slaves were trained as doctors, teachers, etc. Not just for hard labour.

The Bible was not written to be a history book, so for those who had all these bad comments, please, if you want to know history, read history books. Stop with your critisizing the Bible of which you do not know it's history. If you want to know something, get your facts together, including concept of time and situations regarding certain things in the Bible. Don't take one vers and seperate it from the truth of the Bible.

May you be blessed.

The powerful & wealthy men before bought slaves because slaves had low educational trainings. As compared to our generation, men and women have good educational trainings, therefore, you have to pay their services appropriately. Before, very few countries were wealthy, whereas today, many countries are wealthy and strong, so, wars before made many changes of what was written before. However, what was written before is still very useful because men has to mirror whatever decisions he may take for his fellowmen.

Yep it is saying that slavery is ok. Just another thing that is ignored by most christians. If it wasnt, why we would have slavery still. Hell if your going to follow the bible 100% then that should be followed too, yet they dont. Hmmm hypocrisy much? Dont ya just love it?

this is the law under Moses, not Christian law.


Having slaves isn't a requirement of being a Christian. The scriptures about it simply tell how to treat a slave if a person has one. Slaves in the New Testament were no different from employees. They worked for someone, and they were given shelter and food in return.


Before the Common Era. War, poverty, and crime were the basic factors that reduced persons to a state of servitude. Captives of war were often constituted slaves by their captors or were sold into slavery by them. (Compare 2Ki 5:2; Joe 3:6.) In Israelite society a person who became poor could sell himself or his children into slavery to care for his indebtedness. (Ex 21:7; Le 25:39, 47; 2Ki 4:1) One guilty of thievery but unable to make compensation was sold for the things he stole, evidently regaining his freedom at the time all claims against him were cared for.—Ex 22:3.
At times slaves held a position of great trust and honor in a household. The patriarch Abraham’s aged servant (likely Eliezer) managed all of his master’s possessions. (Ge 24:2; 15:2, 3) Abraham’s descendant Joseph, as a slave in Egypt, came to be in charge of everything belonging to Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh. (Ge 39:1, 5, 6) In Israel, there was a possibility of a slave’s becoming wealthy and redeeming himself.—Le 25:49.

Laws governing slave-master relationships. Among the Israelites the status of the Hebrew slave differed from that of a slave who was a foreigner, alien resident, or settler. Whereas the non-Hebrew remained the property of the owner and could be passed on from father to son (Le 25:44-46), the Hebrew slave was to be released in the seventh year of his servitude or in the Jubilee year, depending upon which came first. During the time of his servitude the Hebrew slave was to be treated as a hired laborer. (Ex 21:2; Le 25:10; De 15:12) A Hebrew who sold himself into slavery to an alien resident, to a member of an alien resident’s family, or to a settler could be repurchased at any time, either by himself or by one having the right of repurchase. The redemption price was based on the number of years remaining until the Jubilee year or until the seventh year of servitude. (Le 25:47-52; De 15:12) When granting a Hebrew slave his freedom, the master was to give him a gift to assist him in getting a good start as a freedman. (De 15:13-15) If a slave had come in with a wife, the wife went out with him. However, if the master had given him a wife (evidently a foreign woman who would not be entitled to freedom in the seventh year of servitude), she and any children by her remained the property of the master. In such a case the Hebrew slave could choose to remain with his master. His ear would then be pierced with an awl to indicate that he would continue in servitude to time indefinite.—Ex 21:2-6; De 15:16, 17.
First-Century Christian Position. In the Roman Empire slaves were very numerous, with individuals owning hundreds and even thousands of slaves. The institution of slavery had the protection of the imperial government. First-century Christians did not take a stand against governmental authority in this matter and advocate a slaves’ revolt. They respected the legal right of others, including fellow Christians, to own slaves. That is why the apostle Paul sent back the runaway slave Onesimus. Because he had become a Christian, Onesimus willingly returned to his master, subjecting himself as a slave to a fellow Christian. (Phm 10-17) The apostle Paul also admonished Christian slaves not to take improper advantage of their relationship with believing masters. He said: “Let those having believing owners not look down on them, because they are brothers. On the contrary, let them the more readily be slaves, because those receiving the benefit of their good service are believers and beloved.” (1Ti 6:2) For a slave to have a Christian master was a blessing, as his owner was under obligation to deal righteously and fairly with him.—Eph 6:9; Col 4:1.

It was not God's purpose that any of the Israelites suffer poverty. The nation was given an inheritance of land. (Nu 34:2-12)
The Law, however, did much to make it easier for the poor to cope with their situation. During the harvest they had the right to glean in the fields, orchards, and vineyards and, therefore, did not have to beg for bread or resort to stealing.
To build up his financial resources, he could sell his land or sell himself into slavery, on a temporary basis.

So in a sense it was an arangement to make their life easier not harder.

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The Bible talks about a lot of things. Just because it's in the Bible does not mean that it is condoned. It also says that bribery is effective, which is true, but later it says that bribery is wrong. In Proverbs it says that a "Borrower becomes the lenders slave", This is talking about Borrowing more than slavery. There is also no prison system in the Bible. Even though the OT talks extensively about Crimes and Punishment.

Any Christian will tell you that Leviticus is outmoded and doesn't apply to modern life nowadays. Except for the bits about gays, of course.

Wow...so not EVERYTHING in the Bible holds true today, huh?

Only the things that certain people think still hold true...

Hmmmmm....

Interesting concept...

But who decides what parts of the Bible we should pay attention to and what parts we should ignore?

Hmmmm...

Sorry, just thinking out loud here....