Leviticus 25:40

25:40 The terms hired worker . . . temporary resident appear in parallel, suggesting they were similar in Israel’s socioeconomic system. Both terms describe day laborers who had no land and depended on landowners to hire them (see Matt 20:1-16; also see study note on Lev 19:13). • Jubilee: See study note on 25:8-17.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(40) But as an hired servant.—The master is in all respects to treat him as one who disposes of his service for wages for a certain time, and will then be his own master again.

Shall serve thee unto the year of jubile.—Nor could he be kept beyond the year of jubile. This terminated the sale of his services just as it cancelled all the sales of landed property.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But as an hired servant,.... Who is hired by the day, or month, or year; and, when his time is up, receives his wages and goes where he pleases, and while a servant is not under such despotic power and government as a slave is:

and as a sojourner; an inmate, one that dwells in part of a man's house, or boards and lodges with him, and whom he treats in a kind and familiar manner, rather like one of his own family than otherwise:

he shall be with thee; as under the above characters, and used as such: this the Jews refer to food and drink, and other things, as they do, Deu 15:16; and say (q) that a master might not eat fine bread, and his servant bread of bran; nor drink old wine, and his servant new; nor sleep on soft pillows and bedding, and his servant on straw: hence, they say (r), he that gets himself an Hebrew servant is as if he got himself a master:

and shall serve thee unto the year of the jubilee; and no longer; for if the year of jubilee came before the six years were expired for which he sold himself, the jubilee set him free, as Jarchi observes; nay, if be sold himself for ten or twenty years, and that but one year before the jubilee, it set him free, as Maimonides says (s).

(q) Maimon. in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 2. (r) Ibid. (s) Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hireling, who has engaged to work for a term of years, either of six, or at most 49. After the year of the jubilee, he might enter into fresh engagements with his late master. (Haydock) --- The Hebrews have always hated slavery. We have never been slaves to any, John viii. 33. They were not allowed to part with their liberty, except from absolute distress; (Maimonides) and then they do not submit to what they call intrinsical slavery. --- [Ver. 41.] Children. His wife and children were not made slaves of him. But if his master gave him a second wife, her children belonged to their common master. (Selden, Jur. vi. 1.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

כשכיר כתושב BUT AS A HIRED SERVANT AND AS A SOJOURNER HE SHALL BE UNTO THEE] —Employ him on field-labour or on a handicraft; Treat him as you do any hired servant.

עד שנת היבל [HE SHALL SERVE THEE] UNTIL THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE — This implies that if the Jubilee happens to come (lit., happens to meet him) before the six years of his servitude are at an end, it frees him.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AS A HIRED SERVANT, AND AS A SETTLER, HE SHALL BE WITH THEE. The meaning of this is that he [your brother who sold himself to you] shall not be with you in your house as a bondservant, but as a laborer hired year by year who hires himself out to do work as a freeman, and who is not subjected to heavy work; or [he is to be in your house] as a settler, for it is customary that settlers who come to sojourn in [another] land work for the head of the household with whom they reside to their satisfaction, similar to the case of Jacob with Laban, where [Laban] said [to Jacob], Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be? And in the Torath Kohanim it is written: 7:3. “As a hired servant — just as [in the case of] a hired servant in the same day thou shalt give him his hire, so too, this one must be given his hire in the same day. ). As a settler — just as [in the case of] a settler he shall dwell with thee … where it liketh him best; thou shalt not wrong him, 23:17. this one also where it liketh him best; thou shalt not wrong him. — He shall be with thee, with thee concerning [the same kind of] food, with thee concerning [the same kind of] drink, with thee concerning [the same kind of] clean garment, etc.” ).

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.