Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership

Judgments for a rescued people who still own servants

After the Ten Words and the people's request for Moses to speak, these are the judgments set before them. They begin with the Hebrew servant: six years he serves; in the seventh he goes out free for nothing. If he came in alone, he leaves alone; if he was married, his wife goes with him.

The household the master gave does not leave with him

If the master gave him a wife and she has borne children, the wife and children remain the master's; the man goes out alone. If he plainly says he loves master, wife, and children and will not go free, he is brought to the judges, to the door or doorpost, and his ear is bored through; he serves forever.

A daughter sold as a maidservant does not go out as the menservants do. If she displeases the master who betrothed her, she is to be redeemed; he has no power to sell her to a strange nation, having dealt deceitfully. If betrothed to the son, she is to be treated as a daughter. Food, clothing, and marital rights must not be diminished if another wife is taken; if those three fail, she goes out free without money.

Regulation is not abolition, and it is not approval

These cases limit some harms inside an unequal coercive system: a timed release for some men, food and clothing and an exit for some women. They also lock other people in: the wife given by the master, the children, the bored ear, the daughter who is sold. The law does not make ownership, sale, or sexual vulnerability just. The vulnerable person's body and future remain the ethical center, not the master's convenience.