Leviticus 25:46

46 You can pass them on to your children as inheritance that they can own as permanent property. You can make these people work as slaves, but you must not rule harshly over your own people, the Israelites.

Leviticus 25:46 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:46

And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children
after you
Which they might leave them at their death to inherit, as they did their estates and lands; for such servants are, with the Jews ^F25, said to be like immovable goods, as fields, vineyards, to inherit [them for] a possession;
as their property, as anything else that was bequeathed to hem, as negroes now are in our plantations abroad: thy shall be your bondmen for ever;
and not be released at the year jubilee, nor before nor after; unless they obtained their liberty, either by purchase, which they might make themselves, or by the means of others, or else by a writing under their master's hand dismissing them from his service ^F26; or in case they were maimed by him, then he was obliged to let them go free, ( Exodus 21:26 Exodus 21:27 ) ; but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one
over another with rigour;
which repeated for the confirmation of it, and for the fuller explanation and description of the person not to be ruled over with rigour; and that it might be the more taken notice of, and to make them the more careful in the observance of it and though this peculiarly respects masters' treatment of their servants, yet Jarchi thinks it comprehends a prince over his people, and a king over his ministers, whom he may not rule with rigour.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 3.
F26 Misn. Kiddushin, ib.

Leviticus 25:46 In-Context

44 Regarding male or female slaves that you are allowed to have: You can buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you.

45 You can also buy them from the foreign guests who live with you and from their extended families that are with you, who were born in your land. These can belong to you as property.

46 You can pass them on to your children as inheritance that they can own as permanent property. You can make these people work as slaves, but you must not rule harshly over your own people, the Israelites.

47 If an immigrant or foreign guest prospers financially among you, but your fellow Israelite faces financial difficulty and so sells themselves to the immigrant or foreign guest, or to a descendant of a foreigner,

48 the Israelite will have the right to be bought back after they sold themselves. One of their relatives can buy them back: