Leviticus 25:44-46

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Leviticus 25:39-55

We have here the laws concerning servitude, designed to preserve the honour of the Jewish nation as a free people, and rescued by a divine power out of the house of bondage, into the glorious liberty of God's sons, his first-born. Now the law is, I. That a native Israelite should never be made a bondman for perpetuity. If he was sold for debt, or for a crime, by the house of judgment, he was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh; this was appointed, Exod. 21:2. But if he sold... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Leviticus 25:44

Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have ,.... Such it seems were allowed them, if they had need of them; but if they had them, they were to be not of the nation of Israel, but of other nations; this is an anticipation of an objection, as Jarchi observes; if so, who shall I have to minister to me? The answer follows, they shall be of the heathen that are round about thee, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids ; that is, of the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Leviticus 25:45

Moreover, of the children of the strangers, that do sojourn among you ,.... The uncircumcised sojourners as they are called in the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, proselytes of the gate, such of the nations round about who came and sojourned among them, being subject to the precepts given to the sons of Noah respecting idolatry, &c.; but were not circumcised, and did not embrace the Jewish religion: of them shall ye buy ; for bondmen and bondmaids: and of their families that are... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Leviticus 25:46

And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you ,.... Which they might leave them at their death to inherit, as they did their estates and lands; for such servants are, with the Jews F25 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 3. , said to be like immovable goods, as fields, vineyards: to inherit them for a possession ; as their property, as anything else that was bequeathed to hem, as negroes now are in our plantations abroad: thy shall be... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Leviticus 25:44

Verse 44 44.Both thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids. What God here permits as regards strangers was everywhere customary among the Gentiles, viz., that their power over their slaves should exist not only until their death, but should continue in perpetual succession to their children; for this is the force of the expression, “ye shall possess them for your children,” that the right of ownership should pass to their heir’s also; nor is there a distinction made only as to perpetuity, (153) but also... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 25:1-55

The sabbatical year was instituted not for any supposed physical benefit accruing from it to the land, but, first, as serving for a link between the sabbath and the jubilee by means of the sacred number seven—the sabbatical year being the seventh year, and the jubilee being the year following the seven-times-seventh year; and secondly, and chiefly, as enforcing the lesson of the weekly sabbath in a manner that could not be overlooked, and symbolically, teaching the universal application of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 25:8-55

The jubilee. cf. Isaiah 61:1 -13; Luke 4:18 , Luke 4:19 . We have here a further appendix to the fourth commandment. After seven sabbatic years there came another year, called the jubilee, which was also sabbatic, and during which there was to be a universal restitution. The trumpet was to be blown on the Day of Atonement, and the captives were then to be released, the unfortunate ones who had been compelled to part with their inheritance had it restored to them, and there was a... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 25:8-55

Year of jubilee: 1 . A nation's joy. On every fiftieth year of national life, as the sun went down on the great Day of Atonement, when the sins of the nation had been forgiven, and peace with God was once more assured, the sound of many trumpets ushered in the blessed year of jubilee. Then No nation now can expect to enjoy such an institution as this; we must learn to dispense with such miraculous arrangements as that which made the year of jubilee a possible thing to Israel ( ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 25:8-55

Year of jubilee: II. The world's redemption. The whole Christian era is one long year of jubilee. It is "the acceptable year of the Lord" ( Luke 4:19 ). That "acceptable year," the fiftieth year in the Jewish calendar, was a year of These, in a deeper, a spiritual sense, are the characteristics of the Christian era: 1 . It is a time of spiritual emancipation. Sin is the slavery of the soul; "men are "holden with the cords of their sins" ( Proverbs 5:22 ). They are in the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 25:8-55

Year of jubilee: III. The blessed kingdom. It may be thought that, while it is indeed true that the year of jubilee has a true counterpart in that dispensation of spiritual emancipation, social readjustment, regeneration, rest, joy, in which we stand; yet, on the other hand, there is so much of detraction in the sins and sorrows of the present time as to make the one but a very imperfect picture of the other. There is truth in this thought: it is only in a qualified sense that we can speak... read more

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