This was prohibited in the case of
a Hebrew maid-servant, whom a man had bought and had made her his
concubine. If she did not please him, it was said that--'to sell her
unto a strange nation he shall have no power.' The inference is that
they sold their Gentile slaves, if they pleased, 'to a strange nation.'
Again. When a father or mother became poor, their creditor could take
their children for servants. Thus you read: 'Now there cried a certain
woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, Thy
servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear
the Lord; and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be
bondmen.' This was according to the law of Moses, in the twenty-fifth of
Leviticus; 'bondmen,' however, meaning here a servant for a term of
years. See also the New Testament parable of the unforgiving servant.
"This was hard, it will seem to you and to all of us, that if one became
poor in Israel, his children could be attached. Thus the idea of
involuntary servitude, where no crime was, prevailed in the Theocracy.
"But we come now to something which draws harder upon our faith.
"We find the Most High prescribing, Exodus xxi.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220