8.6 Regulate slavery

Slavery was allowed in ancient Israel, but only within strict parameters of justice and fairness for the enslaved.

Deuteronomy 14.28, 29

“‘At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.

Deuteronomy 15.9-10

“‘Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, “The seventh year, the year of release is near,” and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin.

Leviticus 19.9, 10

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.

Leviticus 25.35-38

“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.

Exodus 22.21-24

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19.33, 34

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.

8.4 Punish kidnappers

No one has the right to deprive another of his liberty in an unlawful manner.

8.5 Do justice to the poor, the sojourners, and the needy

Do not neglect, and do not take advantage of, the poor and needy; rather, make it possible for them to know justice and provision with dignity.

8.3 Preserve personal property

These statutes provide for restitution of stolen property and direct us to love even our enemies by caring for their property.

Leviticus 24.21a

“Whoever kills an animal shall make it good…”

Exodus 21.18, 19

“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed,