Text: Leviticus 25:35
OT Text Referred to: Exodus 21:2
Subject: debt, service, and Jubilee
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Exodus 21:2 establishes the six-year service limit for Hebrew slaves with release in the seventh year, and Leviticus 25:35 introduces the Jubilee framework that redefines Israelite debt service: "If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself among you, you shall support him." Leviticus 25 prohibits treating an impoverished Israelite as a slave (עֶבֶד, eved) at all—he must be treated as a hired worker (שָׂכִיר, sakhir) until the Jubilee year, when all such service terminates. The Levitical legislation grounds this humanitarian treatment in the exodus: "They are My servants whom I brought out of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves" (Lev 25:42), making God's prior claim on Israel's freedom the basis for limiting human servitude.