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Exodus 21:1-2
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Exodus 21:1-2
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 21
Laws Regarding Slaves. 1 These are the ordinances[a] you shall lay before them. 2 (A)When you purchase a Hebrew slave,[b] he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall leave as a free person without any payment.
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- 21:1 Ordinances: judicial precedents to be used in settling questions of law and custom. More than half of the civil and religious laws in this collection (20:22–23:33), designated in 24:7 as “the book of the covenant,” have parallels in the cuneiform laws of the ancient Near East. It is clear that Israel participated in a common legal culture with its neighbors.
- 21:2 Slave: an Israelite could become a slave of another Israelite as a means of paying a debt, or an Israelite could be born into slavery due to a parent’s status as a slave. Here a time limit is prescribed for such slavery; other stipulations (vv. 20–21, 26–27) tried to reduce the evils of slavery, but slavery itself is not condemned in the Old Testament.
New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
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