If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.
God's people must not be held in perpetual slavery; thus are His spiritual Israel called unto liberty. When released, masters must furnish them with stock to begin again, for they leave with nothing of their own. A servant who chooses to stay for life gets reputation among some as quiet and contented, among others as one without due sense of freedom's honor.
AI summary
Commenting on Deuteronomy 15:12-18
And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee,.... By others, as by the sanhedrim for theft, for which a man might be sold, but not a woman, as Jarchi observes; but then a father might sell his daughter for an handmaid, if little and under age; and to such cases this law is supposed to refer; see Exo...
Debtors sold into slavery when their property could not cover debt faced a six-year limit, no longer. They gained freedom either after six years or at the jubilee, whichever came first, even if their full term had not expired.
AI summary
Commenting on Deuteronomy 15:12-19