Slavery In The Bible

When we think of slavery, we often picture people being kidnapped, forced to work in horrible conditions, and treated worse than animals. Sadly, this has been the history of many people. It’s not a new thing, nor has it been limited to certain groups of people.

Like most evils done in the world, God is often blamed for it. People have misused the Scriptures throughout the centuries to support things that God never approved of. Today, I’m going to show you what the Bible actually says, why it says it, and why the accusations of God being immoral because of it are false.

Slavery in the Bible

Yes, God does give instructions for taking slaves and how they should be treated—there’s no denying that. But when we turn to the Bible, we find something very different from the common image of slavery in today’s world.

The slavery described in the Old Testament is not the same as modern slavery, and understanding the difference is essential before judging God’s character or His laws.

We need to understand what a slave actually was in the Bible. We also need to understand how they became slaves and what the instructions were regarding their treatment.

Poverty, debt, and warfare were realities of life. There were no bankruptcy laws, social welfare systems, or long-term prisons for captured enemies of war. Instead, servitude was a method to preserve life and provide a means of survival.

While surrounding nations had little to no laws governing the treatment of slaves, things were much different under God’s law. Slavery in Israel was highly regulated, humane, and limited to only three specific situations. It was nothing like what we imagine today.

What Is a Slave

When most people hear the word slave today, they think of the cruel, race-based slavery of modern history—people kidnapped, chained, and forced into lifelong labor without rights or compassion.

But the Hebrew word most often translated as “slave” or “servant” (‘ebed’) means “a worker, bondservant, or someone under obligation.” It doesn’t automatically include any of the negative things we associate with slavery. In fact, as you’ll soon see, the Bible prohibits such things.

A slave in the Bible was simply someone under obligation to work for another. That’s it—that’s the entire meaning of the term in its biblical context. Anything else we may add to that definition comes from our own modern assumptions, not the Bible itself.

When we imagine that a “slave” was someone kidnapped, held against their will, beaten, and abused, we’re adding our own ideas to what the Bible says. It doesn’t describe slavery that way—it prohibits it.

So how did people become “slaves” in the first place? What situations did God allow where someone could be placed into mandatory servitude?

Voluntary Servitude Due to Poverty

The first legally accepted reason for “slavery” in the Bible is when someone sold themselves into it. These were debtors who sold their labor to pay what they owed—similar to indentured servants who worked off their debts. It’s the same concept as a person saying they’ll work for food.

Today, we would call these people employees—individuals who voluntarily trade their time and service for money to pay debts.

When someone was sold into servitude, it was because a debt was owed that they could not repay. Another person would pay the original creditor, and that creditor would then transfer the person’s debt to the new one. This meant that the debtor now owed the new creditor instead.

This concept is still practiced today—it’s called buying debt. It’s how credit card companies recover their losses. They sell the outstanding debt to a collection company, which becomes the new owner of that person’s debt.

This is the first type of “slavery” the Bible allows for. It is rooted in mercy and care for the less fortunate.

Restitution for Theft

If a man stole and couldn’t repay what he owed, the court could sell him into servitude to make restitution. This was a legal alternative to imprisonment or death, allowing the offender to restore what was lost while still being cared for and fed.

This is similar to people in prison today working by cleaning the sides of roads or performing other tasks—they are “paying their debt” to society.

This is the second type of “slavery” the Bible allows for. It is rooted in justice and restoration, not cruelty.

Prisoners and Captives of War

When Israel went to war, they were commanded to first offer the opportunity for surrender. If the opposing city surrendered, its people would serve them by paying tribute to Israel in exchange for their lives and freedom. If not, the men would be killed in battle.

When war did occur, women and children were spared and given protection under the laws of God. However, they could not simply be left alone in the land, since they were captives of war.

Rather than being killed, they became servants. This was an act of mercy that spared their lives—not cruelty. It was a benefit to both sides.

This is the third and final type of “slavery” the Bible allowed for.

Forbidden Slavery

Other than being born into a household where one’s parents were already servants, these were the only three lawful ways God allowed for “slavery.” I’ll talk about the children in more depth in a moment, but for the most part, these were the only ways a person could be taken as a slave.

They had to either enter into servitude willfully for the purpose of paying debts, be criminals subjected to it as punishment, or be prisoners and captives of war. Each of these situations included mercy, justice, and restitution. They were not kidnapped and trafficked as we think of today. Other nations may have done that, but God had forbidden that practice for His people.

What the Bible allows for is working for others for the purpose of paying debt, making restitution, or having one’s life spared in times of war. That’s a fact of life in every society throughout history, including ours.

If you have a debt, you probably work for someone to pay that debt. If you have committed a crime, you probably have to pay for that crime. If you are an enemy combatant, you probably have to perform tasks for your captors.

What people find so horrible about slavery is the way slaves have historically been treated—not the fact that people have had to work for others. People have been kidnapped, starved, beaten, and even killed with no rights as human beings. That’s what makes slavery evil.

That is what people assume God approved of when they hear that He allowed for slavery in the Bible. But the reality is much different.

Kidnapping people and selling them into slavery was a crime punishable by death. God’s people were not to participate in that kind of slave trade. In fact, slaves who felt the need to escape were not to be returned to their masters but were to be protected from them.

This applied to both Hebrew and foreign servants. That meant the only way even a foreigner could become a slave was voluntarily, as retribution for criminal acts, or as a prisoner of war. Foreigners sold by surrounding nations were to be purchased only under these conditions.

Hebrew Slaves Versus Foreign Slaves

There was one major difference between Hebrew slaves and foreign slaves: all Hebrews were to be set free eventually, while foreigners could be kept indefinitely.

Foreign slaves were generally prisoners of war. But even if they were enslaved through debt, they were still considered heathen, meaning they were regarded as enemies of God. That made them the equivalent of prisoners of war. This distinction is what made their terms of servitude longer.

But that’s not the end of their story.

Even foreign slaves were given the opportunity to become part of the covenant and people of God. Once they accepted the covenant, they were no longer legally considered strangers, but were to be treated as if they were born in the land—as one of the Hebrews themselves.

This transformed them from being enemies of God who would never be free into members of God’s family who could no longer be permanently enslaved.

In any case, the laws God established forbade kidnapping, abuse, and murder for all slaves—Hebrew or foreign.

Children of Slaves

The situation with children born into the households of slaves was a little more complex, though not in a negative way.

Children born to slaves were considered part of the master’s household—essentially like members of the family. They were to be raised, cared for, and nurtured as one of the master’s own children.

If they were born to Hebrew slaves, or if they were circumcised, they were to be set free in the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:40–41). They were not forced to remain in the master’s service for life.

However, if their parents were foreigners and did not allow their child to be circumcised, then that child would be treated as their parents were—remaining outside the covenant and, therefore, still considered an enemy of God until they chose to be circumcised or until death.

But in either case, both Hebrew and foreign slaves were protected under the moral laws of Israel, which applied to all people—free or enslaved.

The Treatment of Slaves

As Exodus 12:49 tells us, the laws of morality that applied to the Hebrews also applied to how they treated their slaves. That means the Ten Commandments were to be upheld when dealing with them. All of God’s laws revolve around love (Matthew 22:39–40). Therefore, slaves were to be treated with love at all times.

Slaves were treated so well, in fact, that there was a special law for those who wanted to remain with their masters even after being set free:

Clearly, what we picture as slavery today is not the kind of servitude God gave instructions for.

Still, there are some passages that can seem difficult to understand if not viewed in the context of this fact. One such passage includes:

Many take this to mean that a slave owner could beat their slave and get away with it. But the reality is much different. If the slave died, the owner was to be punished—and the punishment for killing another person under the law was death, not a mere slap on the wrist.

If the slave did not die but suffered permanent harm—such as losing a tooth or an eye—they were to be set free (Exodus 21:25–26). In that case, the owner would have lost both the value of their investment and the labor of the servant as payment for the injury.

The mistake people often make is thinking that if the slave died on the third day after being beaten, there would be no punishment. But that is not what “a day or two” means here.

If the Bible were giving a fixed time limit to wait and see if the slave died, it would say two days, not a day or two, which implies flexibility. Instead, this passage shows that God leaves the timeframe open—it’s not restricted to two days. The point is that if the slave dies at any point and it’s clearly the result of the attack, then the owner is guilty of murder and must be punished accordingly.

Women Taken as Wives in War

Someone reading this without understanding that all of God’s laws require love might think this gives permission to treat a captive woman as a sex slave.

But when the full law is considered, we see something very different. God is allowing this woman to be shown mercy—to have her life spared rather than be killed as an enemy captive. On top of that, He grants her time to mourn and come to terms with her new life.

Most importantly, this passage does not describe a woman being “taken” by force. She is being given the opportunity to be cared for as a wife—a woman who willingly enters into a union with a man.

In other words, if the man “went in unto her” and she refused him, then she would not be his wife. He had no right to force himself upon her. If he did, he would be guilty of sexual assault—a crime punishable by death (Deuteronomy 22:25).

Despite what some claim, rape is never condoned in the Bible. It is always treated as a serious crime deserving of death. It’s only through misunderstanding or taking verses out of context that some people conclude otherwise.

The Reality of Slavery in the Bible

The truth is, God never wanted people to rule over one another at all. His desire was for us to be equals and to care more about others than ourselves. But since sin entered the world, systems of government—and with them, systems of servitude—became necessary for order and justice.

However, when we actually look at what God said, the very things we find so horrible about slavery are explicitly forbidden.

Kidnapping, abuse, rape, murder, and every other evil associated with slavery are all condemned by God. He not only instructed that people be good to their servants but also commanded protection for those who fled from harsh masters. He provided ways for them to be set free, required that their children be cared for as family, and demanded that all people—slave or free—be treated with fairness and love.

That is a far cry from what people often think the Bible condones.