Leviticus Chapter 25 verse 39 Holy Bible

ASV Leviticus 25:39

And if thy brother be waxed poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bond-servant.
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BBE Leviticus 25:39

And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property;
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DARBY Leviticus 25:39

And if thy brother grow poor beside thee, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
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KJV Leviticus 25:39

And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
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WBT Leviticus 25:39

And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee shall have become poor, and be sold to thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant:
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WEB Leviticus 25:39

"'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
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YLT Leviticus 25:39

`And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service;
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 39-42. - We see the way in which a poor Israelite might become a slave in the case of the sons of the widow whose oil was multiplied by Elisha. "Thy servant my husband is dead; (and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord:) and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen" (2 Kings 4:1). And in the time of Nehemiah, "Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.... And, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards" (Nehemiah 5:3-5). But the fact that an Israelite could not be kept in slavery for more than six years (Exodus 21:2), and that the period of his service had to be still shorter if the jubilee fell before the seventh year, and the further fact that at the time of the jubilee he would not only he free, but recover any ancestral property that he had forfeited, so that he might become once more on an equality with his master, would have made his position totally different from the hopeless, helpless state of the Greek or Roman slave, even without the positive command that he was to be treated, not as a bondservant: but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner. All alike, master and bondsman, were the slaves of God, and therefore not only were they, so far, on an equality one with another, but the master would be encroaching on the right of God if he claimed God's slaves for his own inalienably.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(39) And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor.--Better, And if thy brother be waxen poor by thee, that is, after supporting his tottering hand, as prescribed in Leviticus 25:35-38, and making all the charitable efforts to help him, they fail, and he still finds himself in extreme poverty, and unable to obtain a livelihood.And be sold unto thee.--The voluntary disposal of his own liberty for a money consideration the Israelite could only effect by stress of poverty.Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant.--Under these circumstances he is not to be treated like heathen slaves who are either purchased or captured, and made to do the menial service which these Gentile slaves have to perform. The authorities during the second Temple adduce the following as degrading work which the Israelite bondman is not to be put to: He must not attend his master at his bath, nor tie up or undo the latchets of his sandals, &c., &c.