Servant or Slave

[Sandy]

According to the book of Exodus it is okay to own people as servants/slaves. I have a very hard time accepting this.

Exodus 12:44
And every man's slave/servant, purchased with silver...

Exodus 21
7) And when a man sells his daughter to be a female slave/servant...
20) And if a man stikes his male slave or female slave with a rod and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be avenged.
21) But if he continues a day or two, he shall not be avenged, for he is his silver.

[Thummim]

Hi Sandy. These verses speak of hebrews serving hebrews. I think that it is a kind of indentured servitude that is being spoken of. At least you get to go free after seven years. Here in America, your not turned free until you retire. One word of advice. I don't think that it is a good idea to marry a wife that your boss gives you. Then too, talk about a boss taking liberties with his workers! Hey, how about that coffee? ....Michael

[Sandy]

Leviticus 25
44) And your male slave and your female slave whom you have from the nations who are all around you, you shall buy them as male and female slaves;
45) And also you may buy of the sons of the tenants who are sojourning with you, and of their families who are with you, which they have fathered in your land. And they shall be a possession to you.
46) And you shall take them for in heritance to your sons after you to hold for a possession; you may lay service on them forever. But on you brothers, the sons of Israel, one over another, you shall not rule over him with severity.
48) After he (an Israelite) has been sold there is a redemption to him...

Redemption for the Israelite, but none for the non Israelite.

[Thummim]

Sandy, Slavery is a serious subject. I can't say why YHWH condones it. [And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shell sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for YHWH hath spoken it. Joel3:8]. So our Eloheem doesn't only look like us, he also behaves a little like us. If YHWH condones slavery, does it make it right? Can YHWH change? Did he change? Why does YHWH seem to be an Eloheem full of human emotion? If you follow this logic, it will take us to the reason that the name of YHWH looks so much like Yhwdh (Yahudah). There is a human hand involved (I think many) in the writing of the tanakh. The more that we pursue it, the more our Eloheem becomes like us and the weaker he becomes in satisfying our needs. A messiah of sorts, might be impowered to write a new covenant that we might except, that could present us with an Eloheem a little less like ourselves. After all, if we fall into our own hands, what hope have we? Are we allowed to see the tanakh as a set of writtings penned by a human hand and guided by human thought? ....Michael