KJV ORIGINAL
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.
Close to the original. Clear modern English.
✦ MADE SIMPLE
You may pass them down as an inheritance to your children after you, for them to own as property; they can be your servants permanently. But you must not rule harshly over your fellow Israelites.
⚡ THE BOTTOM LINE
This verse allows permanent slavery of foreigners while requiring gentler treatment of fellow Israelites as servants.
📚 Historical Context
This passage is part of the Jubilee laws in ancient Israel, which distinguished between foreign slaves (who could be owned permanently) and Hebrew servants (who were released every seven years or during Jubilee). These laws reflected the economic and social structures of the ancient Near East, where slavery was a common institution across all cultures.
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