In ancient near east and Israel, some sources of slaves were due debt and criminality. If a male Israelite slave had been given a wife by his owner, then the wife and any children which had resulted from the union would remain the property of his owner, according to the
Covenant Code. Although no nationality is specified, 18th-century theologians
John Gill (1697–1771) and
Adam Clarke suggested this referred only to
Canaanite concubines.
War captives The Israelites did not generally get involved in distant or large-scale wars, and apparently capture was not a significant source of slaves. The enslavement of female captives is encouraged by
Moses in
Numbers 31. After being instructed by
Yahweh to take vengeance upon the
Midianites, Moses tells the
Israelites to kill the male children and non-virgin females, but take the young virgins for themselves. Ken Brown claims that the army did not receive a direct instruction to take the virgin girls captive from Yahweh, and therefore this action cannot be justified as obedience of a divine order; instead, the Israelites enslaved the virgin women on their own initiative. In the
Deuteronomic Code, enemy nations that surrendered to the Israelites were required to serve the Israelites as tributaries. However, if they decided to wage war against Israel, all of the men would be killed and all of the women and children would be considered
spoils of war. If the soldier desired to marry a
captured foreigner, he was required to take her to his house, shave her head, pare her nails, and discard her captive's garb. She would remain in his house for an entire month, mourning the loss of her father and mother, after that, he could go in to see her and become her husband, and she could become his wife. If he later wished to end the relationship, he could not sell her into slavery.
Harold C. Washington cites as an example of how the Bible condones acts of sexual violence which are committed by Israelites; they were taking advantage of women who, as war captives, had no recourse or means of self defense. M. I. Rey argues that the passage is an endorsement of
sexual slavery and
genocidal rape, because the capture of these women is justified on the ground that they are not Hebrew. Rey also argues that these women were not considered the equals of Hebrew women, instead, they were considered war trophies, and thus, their captors had no qualms which would have prevented them from engaging in acts of sexual violence. According to many Jewish commentators, the laws which regulate the treatment of female captives are not intended to encourage the capture and forced marriage of women, instead, they view it as inevitable in wartime and they also seek to minimize the occurrence and brutality of it. ; . ("The Torah only spoke to oppose the evil inclination: If [God] did not permit her, he would take her in violation of the law".)
Debt slavery Debt slaves were one of the two categories of slaves in ancient Jewish society. As the name implies, these individuals sold themselves into slavery in order to pay off debts they may have accrued. Poverty, and more generally a lack of economic security, compelled some people to enter
debt bondage. In the Ancient Near East, wives and (non-adult) children were dependents of the head of household and were sometimes sold into slavery by the husband or father for financial reasons. Evidence of this viewpoint is found in the
Code of Hammurabi, which permits debtors to sell their wives and children into temporary slavery, lasting a maximum of three years. Biblical authors repeatedly criticize debt slavery, which could be attributed to high taxation, monopoly of resources, high-interest loans, and collapse of higher kinship groups. The earlier Covenant Code instructs that, if a thief is caught after sunrise and is unable to make restitution for the theft, then the thief should be enslaved.
Sexual and conjugal slavery ,
Dan and
Bilhah.
Jacob was Rachel's husband, and Bilhah was Rachel's handmaid; Rachel gives Bilhah to her husband and he has two sons by Bilhah: Dan and
Naphtali. There were two words used for female slaves, which were () and (). Based upon the uses in different texts, the words appear to have the same connotations and are used synonymously, namely that of being a sexual object, though the words themselves appear to be from different ethnic origins. Men assigned their female slaves the same level of dependence as they would a wife. Close levels of relationships could occur given the amount of dependence placed upon these women. An Israelite father could sell his unmarried daughters into servitude, with the expectation or understanding that the master or his son could eventually marry her (as in Exodus 21:7–11.) It is understood by Jewish and Christian commentators that this referred to the sale of a daughter, who "is not arrived to the age of twelve years and a day, and this through poverty." The code also instructs that the woman was allowed to be redeemed if the man broke his betrothal to her. If a female slave was betrothed to the master's son, then she had to be treated as a normal daughter. If he took another wife, then he was required to continue supplying the same amounts of food, clothing, and conjugal rights to her. The code states that failure to comply with these regulations would automatically grant free
manumission to the enslaved woman, while all Israelite slaves were to be treated as hired servants. The betrothal clause seems to have provided an exception to the law of release in (cf. ), in which both male and female Israelite servants were to be given release in the seventh year. The penalty if an Israelite engaged in sexual activity with an unredeemed female slave who was
betrothed was referred to as scourging, with Jewish tradition seeing this as only referring to the slave, (versus , where both parties were stoned, being free persons), as well as the man confessing his guilt and the priest making atonement for his sin.
Permanent enslavement As for Israelite slaves, the Covenant Code allows them to voluntarily renounce their seventh-year manumission and become permanent slaves. The Law require that the slaves confirmed this desire "before God", before judges, or in the presence of household gods. where Israelites were allowed to buy non-Israelites as property that could be inherited. In context, it addressed the dilemma on who should become slaves if Israelites were excluded, including those that
sold themselves due to poverty.
Isaac S. D. Sassoon argued that it was a compromise between anti-slavery commoners and pro-slavery landowners in Israel but states that the Hebrew Bible still approves of the heavy regulation and eventual abolition of slavery, regardless of form. Some believe that the non-Israelites refer to neighboring Gentile nations, except for Canaanites who were
doomed to destruction, and unbelievers since Israelites were "children of Abraham by faith". Others believe that Deuteronomy indirectly helped non-Israelite slaves become Israelite because they were required to rest on
Shabbat and participate in Temple and holiday celebrations. However, foreign slaves were banned from celebrating Passover unless they circumcised, which made them equivalent to the native-born Israelite (). Deuteronomy further describes all non-Israelite laborers as being parties to God's covenant as members of the Israelite community although this contentious (). Saul Olyan also argued that non-Israelites, regardless of background, automatically became Israelite if they lived in their territory (), reflecting early Israelite practices.
Protection and compensation Slaves in the Old Testament had rights including protection from abuse, ability to own their own possessions, opportunities for redemption and freedom; partly extending from God freeing his people from slavery in Egypt. to compel that when slaves are significantly injured by their masters, manumission is to be the compensation given; the canonical examples mentioned are the knocking out of an eye or a tooth. This resembles the earlier Code of Hammurabi, which instructs that when an injury is done to a social inferior, monetary compensation should be made, instead of carrying out the basic "eye for an eye" punishment;
Josephus indicates that by his time it was acceptable for a fine to be paid to the slave, instead of manumitting them, if the slave agreed. Nachmanides argued that it was a biblically commanded duty to liberate a slave who had been harmed in this way. In the Covenant Code, if an ox gores a slave, the ox owner must pay the servant's master a 30
shekel fine. The murder of slaves by owners was prohibited in the Law covenant. The Covenant Code clearly institutes the death penalty for beating a free man to death; in contrast, beating a slave to death was to be "avenged" only if the slave does not survive for "one or two days" after the beating.
Abraham ben Nathan of Lunel, a 12th-century
Provençal scholar,
Targum, and Maimonides argue that "avenged" implies the death penalty, A number of modern
Protestant Bible versions (such as the
New Living Translation,
New International Version and
New Century Version) translate the survival for "one or two days" as referring to a full and speedy recovery, rather than to a lingering death, as favoured by other recent versions (such as the
New Revised Standard Version and
New American Bible).
Labor and rest The
Ten Commandments make clear that honouring the
Shabbat, the day of rest, applied to slaves and also their masters. The later Leviticus instructs that during the
Sabbatical Year, slaves and their masters should eat food which the land yields, without being farmed. This commandment not to work the land is directed at the landowner and does not mention slaves, but other verses imply that no produce is sown by anyone in this year, It is not mentioned whether slaves receive rest from non-agricultural work during this year. Unlike the other books, Leviticus does not mention the freeing of Israelite slaves after six years, instead simply giving the vague instruction that Israelite slaves should not be compelled to work
with rigour;
Maimonides argues that this was to be interpreted as forbidding open-ended work (such as
keep doing that until I come back), and that disciplinary action was not to include instructing the slave to perform otherwise pointless work. A special case is that of the debtor who sells himself as a slave to his creditor; Leviticus instructs that in this situation, the debtor must not be made to do the work of slaves, but must instead be treated the same as a hired servant. In Jewish tradition, this was taken to mean that the debtor should not be instructed to do humiliating work—which only slaves would do—and that the debtor should be asked to perform the craft(s) which they usually did before they had been enslaved, if it is realistic to do so. this excludes non-Israelite slaves, and specifically excludes Israelite daughters, who were sold into slavery by their fathers, from such automatic seventh-year manumission. Such were bought to be betrothed to the owner, or his son, and if that had not been done, they were to be allowed to be redeemed. If the marriage took place, they were to be set free if her husband was negligent in his basic marital obligations. The later The Deuteronomic Code also extends the seventh-year manumission rule by instructing that Israelite slaves freed in this way should be given livestock, grain, and wine as a parting gift; the literal meaning of the verb used, at this point in the text, for
giving this gift seems to be
hang round the neck. The Bible states that one should not regret freeing the Slave, for slaves were worth Twice the Hired hand to The Master;
Nachmanides enumerates this as a command rather than merely as a piece of advice. the otherwise potentially long wait until the Jubilee was somewhat alleviated by the Holiness Code, with the instruction that slaves should be allowed to buy their freedom by paying an amount equal to the total wages of a hired servant over the entire period remaining until the next Jubilee (this could be up to 49 years-worth of wages). Blood relatives of the slave were also allowed to buy the slave's freedom, and this became regarded as a duty to be carried out by the
next of kin (Hebrew: ''Go'el''). In the Old Testament, the differences between male and female enslavement were vast. Deuteronomic code applied mostly to men, while women could be subjected to a much different type of slavery. This change in status would require a female debt slave to become a permanent fixture of the household by way of marrying the father or the father's son. Deuteronomy 21:9 states that the female slave must be treated as a daughter if such permanent status is to be established.
Fugitive slaves The Deuteronomic Code forbids the Israelites from handing over fugitive slaves to their masters or
oppressing them, and instructs that these fugitives should be allowed to reside where they wish. The fugitive slave law in Deuteronomy was unique since it granted asylum to foreign slaves coming into Israel, whereas other societies in the ancient near east required allies to return foreign slaves.
Abolition of slavery According to
The Jewish Encyclopedia, the slavery of Israelites was abolished by the prophets after the destruction of the
Temple of Solomon. The prophet
Nehemiah rebuked the wealthy Israelites of his day for continuing to own Israelite slaves. ==New Testament==