Leviticus 25:44-46, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Leviticus 25:44-46
Foreign people may be bought, owned, and inherited
Foreign people may be bought as owned labor
Bondmen and bondmaids are to be taken from the heathen round about; of them Israel may buy. Also of the children of the strangers that sojourn among them, and of families begotten in the land, they may buy. These shall be a possession.
They may be taken as an inheritance for children after them, to inherit as a possession. They are to be bondmen forever. Over Israelite brethren they shall not rule one over another with rigor. The contrast is explicit: Israelites receive limits; foreigners may be held permanently as property.
This is chattel slavery; regulation is not abolition
The unit does not free these people at Jubilee, does not call them hired workers, and does not forbid passing them to children. It authorizes purchase, ownership, and inheritance of foreign slaves. That is chattel slavery with an ethnic boundary.
Describing the rule is not the same as blessing it. The chapter's other protections for Israelite kin do not convert this permission into kindness. Regulation here is not abolition and not moral approval.
The text cannot excuse owning people now
No later reader may use these verses to own, traffic, coerce, or abuse human beings, or to claim that racial or national difference makes a person inheritable. Naming the injustice in the text is required. Softening 'bondman' into 'servant' until the ownership disappears is false teaching.
How this should shape us
Tell the truth: this passage permits perpetual ownership of foreigners. Let that truth end every attempt to baptize slavery, and let it sharpen, rather than cancel, the duty to free people from coercion today.
Teach it back
Explain Leviticus 25:44-46 in your own words. Include its ritual, legal, narrative, or calendar movement; one source-supported detail; one uncertainty; and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters disagree over Jubilee's date, relationship to sabbatical laws and ancient release decrees, historical implementation, land-sale mechanics, debt service, the scope of kinship protection, and the composition of Leviticus 25. The contrast between protected Israelite debt servants and inheritable foreign slaves remains textually explicit and ethically severe.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Leviticus 25:44-46, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 25:44-46
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 25:44-46
Supports: Open critical orientation to Day of Atonement, holiness, social law, calendar, land, release, covenant, and final valuations.
Yale Bible Study, 'Leviticus Part 2,' complete guide sections on Leviticus 16, the Holiness Code, love of neighbor, festivals, land, covenant, and vows, applied to Leviticus 25:44-46
Supports: Comparative legal analysis distinguishing debt service and foreign chattel slavery while refusing to call regulation abolition.
Sweeney, 'The Bible's Evolving Effort to Humanize Debt Slavery,' complete sections on Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 15, and Leviticus 25
Supports: Technical ancient-law analysis of Jubilee, land redemption, pricing, and legal parallels, used with date and scope limitations.
Westbrook, 'Jubilee Laws,' Israel Law Review 6.2 (1971), pp. 209-226, especially legal structure, redemption, land tenure, and implementation questions
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of scholarly disagreement about Hebrews and supersessionism, used as a restraint on Christian canonical claims rather than as a complete solution.
Church, 'Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism,' Oxford 2024 official abstract and metadata, pp. 167-180
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 25:44-46, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 25:44-46
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 25:44-46
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Leviticus Part 2: Day of Atonement, Holiness Code, and Love of Neighbor
Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Open critical orientation to Day of Atonement, holiness, social law, calendar, land, release, covenant, and final valuations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Leviticus Part 2,' complete guide sections on Leviticus 16, the Holiness Code, love of neighbor, festivals, land, covenant, and vows, applied to Leviticus 25:44-46
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open legal and compositional study
The Bible's Evolving Effort to Humanize Debt Slavery
Marvin A. Sweeney
TheTorah.com, 2016
Supports: Comparative legal analysis distinguishing debt service and foreign chattel slavery while refusing to call regulation abolition.
Exact location: Sweeney, 'The Bible's Evolving Effort to Humanize Debt Slavery,' complete sections on Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 15, and Leviticus 25
Open source ↗peer reviewed comparative ancient law study
Jubilee Laws
Raymond Westbrook
Israel Law Review 6.2, Cambridge University Press, 1971; online record 2016
Supports: Technical ancient-law analysis of Jubilee, land redemption, pricing, and legal parallels, used with date and scope limitations.
Exact location: Westbrook, 'Jubilee Laws,' Israel Law Review 6.2 (1971), pp. 209-226, especially legal structure, redemption, land tenure, and implementation questions
Open source ↗modern christian scholarly handbook chapter abstract
Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism
Philip Church
The Oxford Handbook of Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of scholarly disagreement about Hebrews and supersessionism, used as a restraint on Christian canonical claims rather than as a complete solution.
Exact location: Church, 'Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism,' Oxford 2024 official abstract and metadata, pp. 167-180
Open source ↗