Part 3: Why Did Foreigners Serve “Perpetually” Instead of Six Years, As Israelites Did?
Exploring What the Bible Really Says About Slavery
Finally, we must address the nature of the perpetual work relationship. Why aren’t the foreigners released after six years, as the Israelite servants are? Why are the foreign servants hired perpetually — “forever” — when no Israelite can be?
The answer is the Shemitah cycle. We’ve been referring to it every time we discuss an Israelite being released after six years of service.
In Leviticus 25, our same chapter, God clarifies that every Israelite returns to their land and their inheritance in a seven-year cycle. Every seven years, Israelite ebedim are released from their service contracts. This continues for seven cycles of seven years, totaling 49 years. On the 50th year, everyone receives back their land and their inheritance:
“And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. […] In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property” (Leviticus 25:10-13 ESV).
The land is God’s. He assigned it to Israel as an inheritance. Each tribe, each clan, each family received a plot of land. Every fifty years, they returned to it freely.
Some families would rent out their land. Some families faced economic hardship and had no choice but to “sell” their land.
Yet no matter what had happened, every fifty years, every family returned to their land. No debts could last past that fifty year interval. No contracts could ignore it. Every fifty years, every Israelite returned to their land.
But foreign workers had no inheritance to return to.
If every foreign worker had to leave their place of work every seven years, or every fifty years, many would have nowhere to go.
After all, we must ask: why are they working in Israel at all? Why are they not working in their native country?
The obvious answer is that conditions were better for them in Israel than they were back home. Otherwise, they never would have left.
Given the requirements in the Law, it isn’t surprising that conditions would be good in Israel. Even though foreigners had no inheritance to return to every seven years, they still enjoyed a full year of rest. God mandates this in our very same chapter, Leviticus 25:
The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female ebedim and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food” (Leviticus 25:1-7 ESV).
In addition to a full year of rest every seven years, foreign workers received all the protections of the Law we’ve covered: they cannot be abused, their lives count at the same level as natives, they always retain the right to leave. In short, the wealthy Israelites they serve must “love their neighbors as themselves,” treating their foreign workers as good as they treat themselves.
In such a situation, it’s no wonder that foreign workers would want to remain.
And yet, if things turned sour, they always retained the right to leave. Deuteronomy 23:15-16 has no qualifications. Any ebed, foreign or native, is a free citizen as soon as they leave an abusive master. They cannot be oppressed. They can live in the land wherever they wish.
Such working conditions existed nowhere else in the ancient world. Only Israel possessed laws this good. We explored this previously by comparing the Bible to the other ancient law codes. Conditions were better in Israel than anywhere else.
Thus, if a foreign worker wanted to remain in Israel and work there forever, they could.
If they ever wanted to leave, they could.
And the beautiful promise of God is that anyone can join Israel if they want to.
If a foreign worker falls in love with God and His people, that foreigner can become one of God’s people. We witness this occurring frequently in the Scriptures, yet perhaps the clearest and most beautiful occurs in the book of Ruth.
Naomi, and Israelite woman, finds herself widowed. Her husband had taken their family to a foreign land, where her sons married foreign women. Naomi’s husband and sons all die, leaving her alone with her daughters-in-law. Of these two, only Ruth remains with Naomi.
Ruth and Naomi journey back to Israel. On the journey, Naomi tries to persuade Ruth to return to her homeland. But Ruth refuses.
Ruth wants to become an Israelite. She wants to join the people of God:
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16 ESV).
By her own decision, Ruth joined the people of God and became an Israelite. Because of this choice, and because of her faithfulness to Naomi, Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David, and a direct ancestor of Jesus (Ruth 4:18-22).
In the book of Esther, due to the faithfulness of Queen Esther, a Jew who lived in a foreign land, “many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews” (Esther 8:17 ESV).
Anyone could join the people of God, if they wished.
The reasoning behind this becomes clear, as God explains in His Word.
Israel was a theocratic state. The head of Israel was not its king, but God. To be an Israelite, you must follow Israel’s God and obey His commands. The entire purpose of Israel is to follow God, carry out His commands, and show the world the goodness of God and the wisdom of His precepts.
Foreign workers came from lands with different gods, following different religious laws. Many of these religious practices God forbade from Israel, such as child sacrifice, ritual prostitution, and the like. While these foreign workers served an Israelite, it would be the Israelite’s duty to oversee their household, ensuring that no pagan practices occurred.
But once a foreigner joined the people of God, they no longer needed such religious oversight. To become an Israelite, they’ve chosen to follow its God and obey His commands. They don’t need anyone to be responsible for them. They’ve chosen to be responsible for themselves.
When a foreigner decides to join this God, then Israel has accomplished its purpose: convincing a person of the world of the wisdom and goodness of their God. Such a person is now a full-fledged citizen, just as Ruth became.
Any foreign worker who entered Israel through Leviticus 25:44-46 could choose to become a Jew. As soon as they did, they became part of the Shemitah cycle, the seven-year cycle of release. They would now be released after six years of work, if they chose to leave, loaded down with as much wealth as they could carry. They would then use this wealth to establish their own lives and carry out the commands of God, showing His goodness to the world.
After going through all of this, it’s easy to see the accusations of slavery fall away from this passage.
But you have to know the entire Law to be able to see it.
To see this passage for what it truly is, you need to understand the full Bible:
Genesis teaches you that all humanity is made in God’s image, not merely some. Those in Lev 24:44-46 are not lessers, but equals.
Exodus outlaws kidnapping, selling people, and possessing people. Those in Lev 24:44-46 are not being sold or possessed.
Deuteronomy clarifies that no one can be held against their will in a position of servitude, that everyone is free as soon as they want to be. Those in Lev 24:44-46 are always free to leave.
Leviticus commands Israel to treat foreigners as well as citizens, if not better — and commands everyone to love their neighbors as themselves (even their foreign neighbors). Those in Lev 24:44-46 are loved, not abused.
Ruth, the Psalms, and the Prophets clarify the meaning of the words and concepts used. Those in Lev 24:44-46 can join Israel if they wish.
Every perceived offense of Leviticus 24:44-46 can be removed by simply studying the Scriptures. Yet most people don’t want to put in that kind of time.
Still, it is amazing to consider that God included all the tools we need to rightly understand this passage within the Scriptures themselves.
We don’t need to appeal to external sources to untangle this passage. The Scriptures themselves do it well. A thorough knowledge of the Bible removes the offense of this passage, helping us to see it for what it is: Israelite landowners hiring foreign servants to work for them, without a set endpoint to their term of service, but with all of their rights protected, and their freedom guaranteed.
God chose Israel to be a blessing to the nations — not a curse. The foreigners who know Israel the best — those who live and work in it — should therefore be blessed, not cursed, by their association. Like Ruth, they should be able to see the goodness of God over Israel, and want to be a part of it.