Deuteronomy 15:12

12 And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold unto thee and serves thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt send him forth from thee free.

Deuteronomy 15:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 15:12

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 ( Exodus 21:2 Exodus 21:7 ) ( 22:3 ) though a man on account of poverty might sell himself:

and serve thee six years;
as he was bound to do, if his master lived so long; if he died before the six years were out, he was obliged to serve his son, but not his daughter, nor his brother, nor his heirs, as the Jewish writers affirm ^F7: then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee; that is, at the end of the sixth, and beginning of the seventh year; see ( Exodus 21:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Kiddushin. c. 1. sect. 2.

Deuteronomy 15:12 In-Context

10 Thou shalt surely give unto him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand to.

11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land; therefore, I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy, in thy land.

12 And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold unto thee and serves thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt send him forth from thee free.

13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not send him away empty.

14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy threshing floor and out of thy winepress; of that with which the LORD thy God has blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.