Leviticus 25:43

43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.

Leviticus 25:43 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:43

Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour
As the Egyptians ruled over the Israelites, and made them to serve, ( Exodus 1:13 ) ; where the same word is used as here, and seems designed to put them in mind of it, that so they might abstain from such usage of their brethren, which they had met with from their most cruel enemies; it signifies tyranny and oppression, treating them with great severity, laying hard and heavy tasks and burdens upon them they could not bear; enjoining them things they could not perform, and ordering them to do what were unnecessary, and without any limitation with respect to time: but shalt fear thy God;
that has been good to thee, and has brought thee out of hard and rigorous bondage in Egypt; and which should be remembered with thankfulness, and they should fear to offend so good a God by using a brother cruelly.

Leviticus 25:43 In-Context

41 And [then] shall he depart from thee, [both] he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return.
42 For they [are] my servants, which I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bond-men.
43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.
44 Both thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, [shall be] of the heathen that are around you; of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids.
45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
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