Does Leviticus Permit the Abuse of Slaves? Examining an Ancient Israelite Slave Law
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, as the saying goes. Perhaps this is also how you tackle the vexing problem of slavery in the Bible: one text at a time. In fact, that is exactly what I intend to do—examine one Israelite slave text in the Pentateuch: Leviticus 25:39–55. This text and its reception are fraught with difficulty.1Along with Genesis 9:25–27, Leviticus 25:44–46 was the primary biblical text that Southern slaveholders appealed to in support of their cherished practice of racially based chattel slavery. Larry Morrison, “The Religious Defense of American Slavery Before 1830,” JRT 37 (1980–81): 18–19 writes, “Leviticus 25:44–46 was quoted even more extensively in proslavery speeches and tracts than was the Curse on Canaan. It had everything: not only the sanction of slavery but also a reference to buying slaves, keeping them as a possession, and then passing them on as an inheritance forever.” Indeed, I like to compare it to a vast field littered with active landmines.2Here are two landmines that I do not address in this post, but that I would encourage you to reflect on further: 1) the categorization of human beings as property in this text against the backdrop of Genesis 1:26–28, and 2) how to solve the many tensions among Exodus 21:1–11, Leviticus 25:39–55, and Deuteronomy 15:12–18.
Enjoying this article? Read more from The Biblical Mind.
Most strikingly, a reader might wonder if this text allowed the ancient Israelites to abuse their foreign chattel slaves. Leviticus 25:44–46 states,
As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves.You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness. (NIV)
Jeffrey Stackert makes the following comment about this text, “Just as the Israelite slave was treated ruthlessly in Egypt, so may the foreign slave be treated ruthlessly in Israel.”3Jeffrey Stackert, Rewriting the Torah: Literary Revision in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Legislation (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), 159–60. But is Stackert correct? Did this ancient Israelite slave law permit the Israelites to mistreat and oppress their foreign chattel slaves? Equally problematic is the mere permission of chattel slavery in this text. Why was chattel slavery permitted in ancient Israel? In this article, I attempt to answer these two questions first, by acclimating the reader to Leviticus 25:39–55 and second, by reading Leviticus 25:39–55 within the larger moral framework of Leviticus 17–26.
The Israelite Slave Laws in Leviticus 25:39–55
The Israelite slave laws in Leviticus 25:39–55 neatly divide into three sections. Leviticus 25:39–43 prohibited the Israelites from enslaving one another because the Lord delivered them from Egyptian slavery. They belonged to him alone as his slaves (25:42). This section ends with a prohibition of abuse: “You shall not rule over them [fellow Israelites] with harshness, but shall fear your God” (25:43).4Lev 25:39–43: 39 If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. 40 They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. 43 You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God.
Leviticus 25:44–46 permitted the Israelites to purchase and own foreigners and resident aliens as chattel slaves because of their ethnic and social status (i.e., they were not redeemed Israelites) and because they (often) did not own land. This section also ends with a prohibition of abuse of one’s fellow Israelite (but no such prohibition regarding the treatment of the foreigner!): “but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness” (25:46).5Lev 25:44–46: 44 As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. 45 You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. 46 You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
Leviticus 25:47–55 allows an impoverished Israelite to sell himself (and his family) to a land-owning foreigner. Unlike the case of the foreign chattel slave in Leviticus 25:44–46, a family member can redeem the indebted Israelite by paying off their debt. In the worst-case scenario, they may be released in the Jubilee Year (every 50 years). Near the end of this section (25:53) we encounter the now-familiar prohibition of abuse one more time: “who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them [i.e., one’s fellow Israelite] in your sight.”6Lev 25:47–55: 47 If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family, 48 after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, 49 or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves. 50 They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer. 51 If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price; 52 and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. 53 As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. 54 And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year. 55 For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 25:39–55 is a collection of three (related) slave laws. These slave laws contain one overarching message: don’t abuse your (Israelite) neighbor. This prohibition of abuse is the glue that holds these three laws together. It shows up at the two major turning points in this text (25:43 and 25:46) and again towards the end of the text (25:53). Before moving from one law to the next, the author reminds the audience that they are absolutely forbidden from abusing their (Israelite) neighbor: “You shall not rule over them with harshness.”
The three slave laws and their relationship with one another may be graphically represented as follows:
Leviticus 25:39–42: Israelites, do not enslave one another.
—> Leviticus 25:43: Israelites, do not oppress one another.
Leviticus 25:44–46a: Israelites, you may have foreign chattel slaves.
—> Leviticus 25:46b: Israelites, do not oppress one another.
Leviticus 25:47–52, 54–55: Impoverished Israelites may sell themselves to foreigners, but they may be redeemed or, at least, be released in the Jubilee year.
—> Leviticus 25:53: Israelites, do not oppress one another.
Did Leviticus 25:44–46 Permit the Abuse of Israel’s Chattel Slaves?
The answer is no. However, Stackert answers this question in the affirmative because of the strong contrast between Leviticus 25:44–46b and Leviticus 25:46c. Notice the contrast between these verses.
Leviticus 25:44–46b:
As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves.
Leviticus 25:46c:
But as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness. (NIV)
The contrast is indeed stark. The Israelites are permitted to purchase, own, and bequeath foreigners and resident aliens as permanent chattel slaves. Moreover, they are only explicitly forbidden from mistreating their fellow Israelite. In Stackert’s view, the contrast in these verses intentionally allowed the Israelites to abuse their chattel slaves as a form of repayment for the abuse that the Israelites experienced in Egypt (Exodus 1:13–14). In his view, the Israelites can, in some sense, avenge themselves for the wrong done to them by the Egyptians by oppressing the foreigners in Israel.
Stackert, however, has taken a wrong turn. The larger context of Leviticus 25:44–46 (i.e., Leviticus 17–26) demonstrates that the Israelites were forbidden from abusing their chattel slaves. Leviticus 19:33–34 reads, “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (NIV) Leviticus 19:33–34 forbids the Israelites from mistreating foreigners based on their sojourn in the land of Egypt. Since the same author wrote both texts,7Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus, Anchor Bible Commentary, 3 volumes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998–2001). it is highly unlikely that he would forbid the Israelites from abusing foreigners based on their Egyptian sojourn in one text (19:33–34) and then permit them to abuse foreigners based on their Egyptian sojourn in another text (25:44–46). Leviticus 19:33–34 informs our interpretation of Leviticus 25:44–46: the Israelites were not permitted to abuse their foreign chattel slaves.
Leviticus 25:44–46 must also be read in its immediate literary context. Leviticus 25:47–55 envisions a situation in which a foreigner or resident alien obtains wealth, climbs to the top of the social ladder, and becomes the creditor to an Israelite debtor. Although foreigners and resident aliens could be subjected to permanent chattel slavery, they did not have to be subjected to this status. Although the foreigner and resident alien did not inherently belong to YHWH as his slaves (Lev 25:42, 55), chattel slavery was not necessarily their lot in life.
Of course, one could contend that chattel slavery is inherently abusive and, therefore, Leviticus 25:44–46 necessarily permitted abuse in Israel. By modern standards, this assertion may be true. However, Leviticus 25:44–46 is an ancient text that reflects an ancient social institution. This social institution normally allowed for the abuse of chattel slaves, but Leviticus 25:44–46 (and its larger literary context) forbade such abuse.
Although limited space prevents a thorough exploration of this text, an earlier Israelite slave law in the Pentateuch (Exodus 21:23–27) also supports my interpretation of Leviticus 25:44–46. Exodus 21:23–27 forbid the Israelites from abusing their slaves. If an Israelite master chose to abuse his slave, then the slave was automatically freed. It seems that Leviticus 25:44–46 builds on the already-existing law and coheres with its prohibition of abuse.
This article does not come close to solving all the problems with the presence of chattel slavery in the Bible (or even all the problems in this text).8See William Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001) for a helpful assessment of this problem. Nevertheless, as I mentioned in the introduction, the best way to tackle this problem is one text at a time. I have attempted to tackle some of the problems in and around Leviticus 25:39–55. In the end, I believe that this text permitted chattel slavery in ancient Israel, but it did not permit the abuse, mistreatment, or oppression of chattel slaves.
End Notes
1. Along with Genesis 9:25–27, Leviticus 25:44–46 was the primary biblical text that Southern slaveholders appealed to in support of their cherished practice of racially based chattel slavery. Larry Morrison, “The Religious Defense of American Slavery Before 1830,” JRT 37 (1980–81): 18–19 writes, “Leviticus 25:44–46 was quoted even more extensively in proslavery speeches and tracts than was the Curse on Canaan. It had everything: not only the sanction of slavery but also a reference to buying slaves, keeping them as a possession, and then passing them on as an inheritance forever.”
2. Here are two landmines that I do not address in this post, but that I would encourage you to reflect on further: 1) the categorization of human beings as property in this text against the backdrop of Genesis 1:26–28, and 2) how to solve the many tensions among Exodus 21:1–11, Leviticus 25:39–55, and Deuteronomy 15:12–18?
3. Jeffrey Stackert, Rewriting the Torah: Literary Revision in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Legislation (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), 159–60.
4. Lev 25:39–43: 39 If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. 40 They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. 43 You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God.
5. Lev 25:44–46: 44 As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. 45 You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. 46 You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
6. Lev 25:47–55: 47 If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family, 48 after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, 49 or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves. 50 They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer. 51 If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price; 52 and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. 53 As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. 54 And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year. 55 For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
7. Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus, Anchor Bible Commentary, 3 volumes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998–2001).
8. See William Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001) for a helpful assessment of this problem.
Subscribe now to receive periodic updates from the CHT.
