Leviticus 25:53

53 They are to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those to whom they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly.

Leviticus 25:53 in Other Translations

53 And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

53 He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight.

53 The foreigner must treat them as workers hired on a yearly basis. You must not allow a foreigner to treat any of your fellow Israelites harshly.

53 He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year. You must make sure that his owner does not tyrannize him.

53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.

53 During those years he should serve his buyer as a hired worker. His buyer should not treat him harshly.

53 He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A foreign owner is not to rule over him harshly in your sight.

53 " 'He must be treated as if he had been hired from year to year. You must make sure that his owner is kind to him when he rules over him.

Leviticus 25:53 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:53

[And] as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him
Being redeemable every year, and upon his redemption might quit his master's service, as an hireling may; and the price of his redemption to be valued according to the years he served, and as if he had been hired for so much a year; as well as he was to be treated in a kind and gentle manner, not as a bondman, but as if he was an hired servant, as follows: [and the other] shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight;
the person he is sold unto, his master, a sojourner or stranger, he might not use an Hebrew he had bought with any severity; for if an Hebrew master might not use an Hebrew servant with rigour, it was not by any means to be admitted in the commonwealth of Israel for a proselyte to use one in such a manner, and that openly, in the sight of an Israelite his neighbour; he looking on and not remonstrating against it, or acquainting the civil magistrate with it, who had it in his power to redress such a grievance, and ought to do it.

Leviticus 25:53 In-Context

51 If many years remain, they must pay for their redemption a larger share of the price paid for them.

52 If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they are to compute that and pay for their redemption accordingly.

53 They are to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those to whom they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly.

54 “ ‘Even if someone is not redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee,

55 for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Cross References

• 1. Colossians 4:1