He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight.
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.
Commenting on Leviticus 25:39-55
And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him,.... Being redeemable every year, and upon his redemption might quit his master's service, as an hireling may; and the price of his redemption to be valued according to the years he served, and as if he had been hired for so much a year; as well as he was to be treated in a...
[And] as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: [and the other] shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. (y) You shall not allow him to treat him severely, if you know it.