Leviticus 25:40

40 But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee.

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.

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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 am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might give you the land of Chanaan, and might be your God.

39 If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee: thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants.

40 But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee.

41 And afterwards he shall go out with his children: and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers.

42 For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen.