Jeremiah 34:9

9 Everyone who had a male or female slave who was Hebrew was to let him go free; none was to keep as his slave a fellow Jew.

Jeremiah 34:9 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 34:9

That every man should let his manservant, and every man his
maidservant, [being] an Hebrew, or an Hebrewess, go free
This is the proclamation that was agreed to be made, that every manservant and maidservant, that serve six years an apprenticeship, should be freed from their servitude, according to the law in ( Exodus 21:1 Exodus 21:2 ) ; a law founded upon justice and equity, mercy and compassion; done for the honour of the Jewish nation, that they might be a free people, and in commemoration of their deliverance from their servitude in Egypt. This law, as it seems, had been long neglected, and servants had been retained in bondage beyond their due time, through the oppression and covetousness of their masters, and the neglect of the civil magistrates; who should have took care that such a law was put in execution, and that servants were not oppressed. Some have thought that it was at the beginning of the sabbatical year that this proclamation was made, when, according to the law, there should be a release of servants, ( Deuteronomy 15:1 ) ; but that was not a release of servants, but of debts; for if a servant had not served out his time, the sabbatical year, or year of release, did not discharge him; though the year of jubilee did, according to Maimonides ^F12, who says,

``if the year of release happens in any of the six years, he (the servant) serves in it; but if the year of jubilee happens within the time, even though he has been sold but one year before it, he is free;''

that none should serve himself of them, [to wit], of a Jew his
brother;
or cause them to serve him, oblige them against their will to continue in his service; or by any means avail himself of them, and receive to himself any profit or advantage by their service, they being Jews and brethren; which seems to be added, both as the reason of the law, because they were brethren of the same nation and religion with them, and to distinguish them from other servants, who notwithstanding this law might be retained as such.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 2.

Jeremiah 34:9 In-Context

7 at the time when the king of Bavel's army was fighting against Yerushalayim and against all the cities of Y'hudah that were left - that is, against Lakhish and 'Azekah, since only these remained of the fortified cities of Y'hudah.

8 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI after King Tzidkiyahu had made a covenant with all the people in Yerushalayim to emancipate them.

9 Everyone who had a male or female slave who was Hebrew was to let him go free; none was to keep as his slave a fellow Jew.

10 All the leaders and all the people listened who had entered into the covenant, wherein everyone was to free his male and female slaves and not keep them in bondage any longer. They listened, and they let them go.

11 But afterwards, they changed their minds; they made the male and female slaves, whom they had freed, return; and they brought them back into subjection as slaves.