Leviticus 25:40

40 He shall be with thee as a hireling or a sojourner, he shall work for thee till the year of release:

Leviticus 25:40 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:40

[But] as an hired servant
Who is hired by the day, or month, or year; and, when his time is up, receives his wages and goes where he pleases, and while a servant is not under such despotic power and government as a slave is: [and] as a sojourner;
an inmate, one that dwells in part of a man's house, or boards and lodges with him, and whom he treats in a kind and familiar manner, rather like one of his own family than otherwise: he shall be with thee;
as under the above characters, and used as such: this the Jews refer to food and drink, and other things, as they do, ( Deuteronomy 15:16 ) ; and say F17 that a master might not eat fine bread, and his servant bread of bran; nor drink old wine, and his servant new; nor sleep on soft pillows and bedding, and his servant on straw: hence, they say F18, he that gets himself an Hebrew servant is as if he got himself a master: [and] shall serve thee unto the year of the jubilee;
and no longer; for if the year of jubilee came before the six years were expired for which he sold himself, the jubilee set him free, as Jarchi observes; nay, if be sold himself for ten or twenty years, and that but one year before the jubilee, it set him free, as Maimonides says F19.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 Maimon. in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 2.
F18 Ibid.
F19 Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 3.

Leviticus 25:40 In-Context

38 I the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Chanaan, so as to be your God.
39 And if thy brother by thee be lowered, and be sold to thee, he shall not serve thee with the servitude of a slave.
40 He shall be with thee as a hireling or a sojourner, he shall work for thee till the year of release:
41 and he shall go out in the release, and his children with him; and he shall go to his family, he shall hasten back to his patrimony.
42 Because these are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; such an one shall not be sold as a servant.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.