Jer. vii. 6; xxii. 3; Ezek. xxii. 7: comp. Exod. xxii. 22—24; Deut. x. 18; xxiv. 17.

§. 169. RESPECTING SLAVES, T, ninyi.

The number in a family was very much increased by the slaves that were attached to it. It is probable that some of the patriarchs, as was sometimes the case at a later period with individuals in Greece and Rome, possessed many thousands of them. Slavery existed before the deluge, Gen. ix. 25; and Moses permitted the Hebrews to possess foreigners, both male and female, in the character of slaves: but the owners of them were bound by the laws to have them circumcised, if they had not previously been so, and to instruct them in the worship of the only true God, Gen. xvii. 12—14.

The Canaanites, however, could not be held in slavery. Slavery was considered too great a privilege for them; or rather it would have subjected the Jews to too great a hazard. Such was the bad faith of the Canaanites, the greatness of their numbers, and their deep-rooted idolatry, that, had they been introduced under any circumstances whatever into the Israelitish community, they would certainly have endangered their existence, as a people of God. The Gibeonites, the Kephirites, the Beerothites, and the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, having surreptitiously obtained a treaty with the Israelites, were made exceptions also, and were employed in the service of the tabernacle, Josh. ix. 1-27.

§. 170. WAYS IN WHICH MEN BECAME SLAVES.

It is impossible to prove which was the first cause of slavery: men fell into this unfortunate and degrading condition in the following various ways:

I. Captivity in war. Some suppose this to have been the origin of slavery, Gen. xiv.; Deut. xx. 14; xxi. 10, 11.

II. Debts. When they were so large that the debtor was unable to pay them, 2 Kings, iv. 1; Is. 1. 1; Matt. xviii. 25.

III. Theft. Slavery was the consequence of theft, when the thief was not able to repay the amount of the property which he had taken, Exod. xxii. 2; Neh. v. 4, 5.

IV. Man-stealing. By this is to be understood that act of violence by which an individual in time of peace is unjustly sold into slavery, or is retained as a slave by the author of the crime.

Moses enacted laws of very great severity against this crime; but they were restricted in their operation to those who had by violence taken and made a slave, or sold for one a free Hebrew, Exod. xxi. 16; Deut. xxiv. 7.

V. The children of slaves. Children, who were slaves by birth, are mentioned in the Scriptures under the following Hebrew phrases;

, those born in one's house ;

2, NT, the children of maid-servants; , the sons or children of the house.

Consult Gen. xiv. 14; xv. 3; xvii. 23; xxi. 10; Ps. lxxxvi. 16; cxvi. 16.

VI. Purchase. This happened when a man oppressed with poverty sold himself; or when a master sold his slave. Purchasing slaves was the most common mode of obtaining them, Numb. xxxi. 14-18, 35. Hence slaves are denominated, the properly or the purchase of silver, i. e. those purchased with silver. The price of a slave was different at different times, varying with the age, sex, health, skill, &c. of the individual sold. We may infer from Exod. xxi. 32, that the medium price of a slave was thirty shekels; and, by an examination of Lev. xxvii. 1-8, we may form a probable opinion as to the difference of the valuation of a slave in the different periods of his life.

§. 171. CONDITION OF SLAVES AMONG THE HEBREWS.

Both the food and the clothing of those who had lost their freedom were of the poorest description. All their earnings went to their master; and their labour was worth to him double that of a merely hired servant, Deut. xv. 18. They commonly had the consent of their masters to marry, or rather to connect themselves with a woman in that way which is denominated by a Latin law-term contubernium. The children that proceeded from such marriages were the property of their master. The children, however, never addressed their owners as a father, but always as a lord or master, Rom. viii. 15; Gal. iv. 6. Although the children born in his house were the slaves of the owner, yet they were as devoted to him as if they had been his own offspring. In consequence of this attachment the patriarchs trusted them with arms, and trained them to war, Gen. xiv. 14; xxxii. 6; xxxiii. 1. The slaves were expected to perform any labour which their

masters deemed it expedient to require of them; but their common vocation was that of husbandry, and the tending of flocks and herds. The maid-servants were employed in domestic concerns; though not unfrequently they were compelled to engage in those duties which from their nature were more befitting the other sex.

The servant who was found to be most faithful and discreet was placed over the others, and was called 112, oikovóμos, or the steward, Gen. xxiv. 2; xlvii, 6; Ruth, ii. 5; 1 Sam. xxiv. 7; 1 Chron. xxvii. 29, 30. The ruling servant or steward allotted to the others their various duties, and likewise saw their food prepared, except when, as was sometimes the case, a female servant, who had been found especially worthy of confidence, had assumed the charge of the latter, Prov. xxxi. 15; 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2; Gal. iv. 2; Eph. iii. 2; Tit. i. 7; 1 Pet. iv. 10.

It was the duty of some of the servants to instruct the children of their owners, while some waited upon their mistress, and others upon their master. The condition of these was in some respects less hard than that of the others; although it is natural to suppose that those masters who had any sense of the duties which every man owes to another, whatever his condition might be, treated their slaves with kindness and humanity, Job, xxxi. 13. Moses, in order to improve the condition of those who had lost their freedom, made the following regulations:

I. That servants, or slaves, should be treated with humanity. The law, which is given in Leviticus, xxv. 39-53, speaks very expressly in relation to the treatment of servants that were of Hebrew origin, and of those only; but as the slaves that were of foreign origin, when once circumcised, were reckoned among the Hebrews, it may be considered as applying, in some degree at least, to all.

II. That the master, who slew a servant of whatever origin, with a rod or by blows, should be punished according to the will and pleasure of the judge. In case the servant did not die until a day or two after being smitten, the master went unpunished; because the design of murdering the servant could not in that case be presumed; and the loss of the servant was deemed a sufficient punishment, Exod. xxi. 20, 21.

III. He further enacted, if the master injured the servant in eye or tooth, that is, according to the spirit of the law, in any

member whatever, the servant, in consequence of such treatment, should receive his freedom, Exod. xxi. 26, 27.

IV. That the servants, on every sabbath and on all festivals, should enjoy a cessation from their labours, Exod. xx. 10; Deut. v. 14.

V. That they should be invited to those feasts which were made from the second tithes, Deut. xii. 17, 18; xvi. 11; comp. Matt. xxv. 21-23.

VI. That the servants, in accordance with an ancient law or custom to which there is an allusion in Job, xxiv. 10, 11, were entitled to and should receive an adequate subsistence from those to whom they were subject, Deut. xxv. 4; comp. 1 Cor. ix. 9; 1 Tim. v. 18.

VII. The master was bound to provide for the marriage of maid-servants, unless he took them to himself as concubines, or gave them to his son, Exod. xxi. 8.

VIII. A servant of Hebrew origin was not obliged to serve longer than six years; after which time he was to be dismissed with presents of considerable value, and with the wife whom he had married previously to having lost his freedom, Exod. xxi. 2 -4; Lev. xxv. 1-17. In case he had become a slave while unmarried, and had married with the consent of his master during the period of his slavery, the wife could not go out with him to the enjoyment of freedom, until she had first completed her seven years of servitude, Exod. xxi. 4; Lev. xxv. 39–41 ; Deut. xv. 12-17. Of this privilege, for such it may be considered, the Hebrew maid-servants were, at first, for some reason, wholly deprived, Exod. xxi. 7, et seq.; but at a later period the Hebrew legislator thought proper to grant it to them, Deut. xv. 12—17. The person who had once been a slave, but had afterwards obtained his freedom, was denominated in Hebrew,

. If the servant, too much attached to his master, his wife, and the children of whom he had become the father in his servitude, refused to accept the freedom which had been offered to him; the master, in the presence of a judge, had liberty to receive him, and in sign of perpetual servitude was to thrust an awl through his ear into the door-post, Exod. xxi. 5, 6; Deut. xv. 17. It was not in the power of their masters, however, to sell slaves of this description, notwithstanding they had voluntarily subjected themselves to perpetual servitude, to any person

living out of the Hebrew territories, Exod. xxi. 7, 8. In regard to those slaves who had not completed the six years of their service, it may be further remarked here, that, if they were Hebrews by origin, and had been sold to persons dwelling in the Hebrew territory, any one might redeem them; or they might redeem themselves, if they had property sufficient, by paying a price adequate to the remaining years of service, making six in the whole, Lev. xxv. 47–55.

IX. On the year of jubilee all the servants or slaves of Hebrew descent were to be emancipated, Lev. xxv. 40, 41.

X. Slaves, who were Hebrews by birth, were permitted to possess some little property of their own, as may be learnt from Lev. xxv. 49, compared with 2 Sam. ix. 10.

FINALLY, a slave who had fled from another nation, and sought a refuge among the Hebrews, was to be received and treated with kindness, and not to be forcibly sent back again, Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.

§. 172. THE CONDITION OF SLAVES AMONG OTHER NATIONS.

Notwithstanding Moses inculcated, in many instances, humanity towards slaves, and protected them also by special laws enacted in their favour; yet they were sometimes treated with undue severity, Jer. xxxiv. 8-22. Still their condition was better among the Hebrews than among some other nations; as may be learnt from their well-known rebellions against the Greeks and Romans. Nor is it at all wonderful, that the Hebrews differed from other nations in the treatment of their slaves in a way so much to their credit, when we consider the many and weighty motives that were presented to them thus to act; and in no other country was there a sabbath for slaves, a day of rest, and laws sanctioned by the Divinity in their favour.

Runaway slaves, and those who were suspected of an intention to escape from their masters, were branded, usually in the forehead, to which custom there are allusions in Galatians, vi. 17, and Revelations, xiv. 9; xxii. 4. Slaves in heathen nations were debarred from a participation in all civil festivals, and in all religious exercises; but this was not the case with the Hebrews. After Christianity had penetrated into those nations, the state of things was changed; and slaves, in the Christian Church, enjoyed equal privileges with their masters, as far as the Church