Leviticus 25:40-53

⁴⁰Treat him like you treat workers that you hire or like someone who is living on your land temporarily. But he must work for you only until the Year of Celebration.

⁴¹During that year, you must free him, and he will go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned.

⁴²It is as though you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I freed from being slaves in Egypt. So none of you should be sold to become slaves.

⁴³And do not treat the Israelis whom you buy cruelly; instead, revere me, your God.

⁴⁴If you want to have slaves, you are permitted to buy them from nearby countries.

⁴⁵You are also permitted to buy some of the foreigners who are living among you, and members of their clans that were born in your country. Then you will own them.

⁴⁶They will be your slaves for the remaining years of your life, and after you die, it is permitted for your children to own them. But you must not act in brutal ways toward your fellow Israelis.

⁴⁷If a foreigner who is living among you DOU becomes rich, and if one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to that foreigner or to a member of his clan/family,

⁴⁸it is permitted for someone to pay for him to be freed. It is permitted for one of his relatives to pay for him to be released:

⁴⁹An uncle or a cousin or another relative in his clan may pay for him to be released. Or, if he prospers and gets enough money, he is permitted to pay for his own release.

⁵⁰The man who wants to pay for his own release must count the number of years until the next Year of Celebration. The price he pays to the man who bought him will depend on the pay that would be given to a hired worker for that number of years.

⁵¹If there are a lot of years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay for his release a larger amount of the money.

⁵²If there are only a few years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay a smaller amount to be released.

⁵³During the years that he is working for the man who bought him, the man who bought him must treat him like he would treat a hired worker, and all of you must make sure that his owner does not treat him cruelly.