Text: Deuteronomy 15:12
OT Text Referred to: Exodus 21:1
Subject: debt slaves
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Exodus 21:1 introduces the Hebrew slave laws (מִשְׁפָּטִים, mishpatim), stipulating that a Hebrew servant serves six years and goes free in the seventh. Deuteronomy 15:12 restates this law but adds a significant humanitarian expansion: the master must not send the freed slave away empty-handed but must supply him liberally from flock, threshing floor, and winepress. Deuteronomy's version explicitly includes female slaves ("If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you") and grounds the generosity requirement in Israel's exodus memory: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt" (Deut 15:15). This development transforms the Exodus law's focus on legal duration into a call for compassionate provision.