pay it; that is, he might bind himself to service for a term of years. Still, he could hold property, and the moment he acquired the means, might purchase back his freedom, or he might be redeemed by his nearest kinsman.[1] If his master treated him with cruelty; if he beat him so as to cause injury, the servant recovered his freedom as indemnity.[2] At the longest, his servitude came to an end in six years. He then recovered his freedom as a natural right: "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing."[3] A Hebrew slave was, therefore, merely a laborer hired for six years. Nor did the law permit the faithful servant to go forth in naked poverty, and with the abject feeling of a slave still clinging to him. He was to be loaded with presents by his late master — sheep, oil, fruits, and wine — to enable him to begin housekeeping.[4] Thus for a Hebrew there was no such thing as hopeless bondage. The people were not to feel the degradation of being slaves. God claimed them as His own, and as such they were not to be made bondmen.[5] Every fiftieth year was a jubilee, a year of universal emancipation. Then "liberty was proclaimed throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof."[6]This was the time of the restitution of all things. Though a man had sold himself as a slave, his right in the land was not alienated. It now returned to him free of encumbrance. At the year of jubilee all debts were extinguished. His native plot of ground, on which he played in childhood, was restored to him in his old age. Again he cultivated the paternal acres. He was not only a free man, but a holder of property.
It is true these rights were limited to slaves of Hebrew descent. The Canaanites were considered as captives in
