udges: he
shall also bring him to the door or to the door-post, and he shall bore
his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever." Deut.
15:17, the same law adds, "And also to thy maid-servant shalt thou do
likewise." But in Lev. 25:39, 40, 53, it is expressly enacted that one
who served longer than six years was not to be treated or considered as
an #EVEDH#, _evedh_, one contracting for a term of years, but as a
#SAUKIR#, _saukir_, a hired servant, to be well treated and compensated
for his services. "Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant,
but as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee." The
servant must plainly say, "_I will not_ go out;" it must be _voluntary_
service; but chattelism is involuntary, forced, and directly contrary to
the case before us. "He shall serve _him_ for ever," not his sons after
him, not giving the right of transfer or sale of service to a third
person, "_He_ shall serve," not his wife or children, but himself, till
death, or his master's death, or the jubilee. This, then, was not
chattelism, for it was _voluntary_, _without purchase_ or sale, _ending
with the life of the servant, the master, or the year of release--the
jubilee_.

The third class of servants--children--appear during minority to have
been, as now in all Eastern countries, entirely at the service or
control of their parents, and might by them be hired out, Neh. 5:2-6,
but, when of age, were of course independent of parental acts and
control. John 9:21. That the offspring of servants in patriarchal times
were free we have already proved; that they were so among the Israelites
is shown by the case of Abimelech, the son of a maid-servant, Judg.
9:18, yet free as his brethren, and afterward king of Israel; also of
Sheshan. 1 Chr. 2:34, 35. No service, indeed, could be recognized or
demanded, in Jewish law, of grown persons, except as the result of
contract or crime.

In respect to the fourth class, it is plain from the language used that
only sufficient service could be required of them to cancel the
obligation of restitution. Ex. 22:3. "He should make full restitution;
if he have nothing, then he shall be _sold_ for his theft;" in case of
debt, Matt. 18:34, "till he should pay all that was due to him."

2. _Servants obtained from the heathen._ These were, first, captives.
From the account of the first taking of captives by the Israelites, Num.
31:7-47, we learn, verse 7, that they ma