Part 27 (1/2)
1. ”BONDMEN.” The fact that servants from the heathen are called ”_bondmen_,” while others are called ”_servants_,” is quoted as proof that the former were slaves. As the caprices of King James' translators were not inspired, we need stand in no special awe of them. The word here rendered bondmen is uniformly rendered servants elsewhere. The Hebrew word ”_ebedh_,” the plural of which is here translated ”bondmen,”
is in Isa. xlii. 1, applied to Christ. ”Behold my _servant_ (bondman, slave?) whom I have chosen.” So Isa. lii. 13. ”Behold my _servant_ (Christ) shall deal prudently.” In 1 Kings xii. 6, 7, to _King Rehoboam_. ”And they spake unto him, saying if thou wilt be a _servant_ unto this people, then they will be thy _servants_ forever.” In 2 Chron.
xii. 7, 8, 9, 13, to the king and all the nation. In fine, the word is applied to _all_ persons doing service for others--to magistrates, to all governmental officers, to tributaries, to all the subjects of governments, to younger sons--defining their relation to the first born, who is called _Lord_ and _ruler_--to prophets, to kings, to the Messiah, and in respectful addresses not less than _fifty_ times in the Old Testament.
If the Israelites not only held slaves, but mult.i.tudes of them, if Abraham had thousands and if they _abounded_ under the Mosaic system, why had their language _no word_ that _meant slave_? That language must be wofully poverty-stricken, which has no signs to represent the most common and familiar objects and conditions. To represent by the same word, and without figure, property, and the owner of that property, is a solecism. Ziba was an ”_ebedh_,” yet he ”_owned_” (!) twenty _ebedhs_!
In our language, we have both _servant_ and _slave_. Why? Because we have both the _things_ and need _signs_ for them. If the tongue had a sheath, as swords have scabbards, we should have some _name_ for it: but our dictionaries give us none. Why? Because there is no such _thing_.
But the objector asks, ”Would not the Israelites use their word _ebedh_ if they spoke of the slave of a heathen?” Answer. Their _national_ servants or tributaries, are spoken of frequently, but domestic servants so rarely that no necessity existed, even if they were slaves, for coining a new word. Besides, the fact of their being domestics, under _heathen laws and usages_ proclaimed their _liabilities_, their _locality_ made a _specific_ term unnecessary. But if the Israelites had not only _servants_, but a mult.i.tude of _slaves_, a _word meaning slave_, would have been indispensable for every day convenience.
Further, the laws of the Mosaic system were so many sentinels on the outposts to warn off foreign practices. The border ground of Canaan, was quarantine ground, enforcing the strictest non-intercourse in usages between the without and the within.
2. ”FOREVER.” This is quoted to prove that servants were to serve during their life time, and their posterity from generation to generation. No such idea is contained in the pa.s.sage. The word ”forever,” instead of defining the length of _individual_ service, proclaims the permanence of the regulation laid down in the two verses preceding, namely, that their _permanent domestics_ should be of the Strangers, and not of the Israelites: it declares the duration of that general provision. As if G.o.d had said, ”You shall _always_ get your _permanent_ laborers from the nations round about you--your servants shall always be of that cla.s.s of persons.” As it stands in the original it is plain--”Forever of them shall ye serve yourselves.” This is the literal rendering.
That ”_forever_” refers to the permanent relations of a _community_, rather than to the services of _individuals_, is a fair inference from the form of the expression, ”Both thy bondmen, &c., shall be of the _heathen_. Of THEM shall ye buy,” &c. ”THEY shall be your possession.”
To say nothing of the uncertainty of _those individuals_ surviving those _after_ whom they are to live, the language used, applies more naturally to a _body_ of people, than to _individual_ servants. Besides _perpetual_ service cannot be argued from the term _forever_. The ninth and tenth verses of the same chapter, limit it absolutely by the jubilee. ”Then thou shalt cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound * *
throughout ALL your land.” ”And ye shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto ALL the inhabitants thereof.” It may be objected that ”inhabitants” here means _Israelitish_ inhabitants alone. The command is, ”Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto ALL _the inhabitants thereof_.” Besides, in the sixth verse, there is an enumeration of the different cla.s.ses of the inhabitants, in which servants and Strangers are included; and in all the regulations of the jubilee, and the sabbatical year, the Strangers are included in the precepts, prohibitions, and promises. Again: the year of jubilee was ushered in, by the day of atonement. What did these inst.i.tutions show forth? The day of atonement prefigured the atonement of Christ, and the year of jubilee, the gospel jubilee. And did they prefigure an atonement and a jubilee to Jews only? Were they types of sins remitted, and of salvation proclaimed to the nation of Israel alone? Is there no redemption for us Gentiles in these ends of the earth, and is our hope presumption and impiety? Did that old part.i.tion wall survive the shock, that made earth quake, and hid the sun, burst graves and rocks, and rent the temple veil? and did the Gospel only rear it higher to thunder direr perdition from its frowning battlements on all without? No! The G.o.d of our salvation lives ”Good tidings of great joy shall be to ALL people.” One shout shall swell from all the ransomed, ”Thou hast redeemed us unto G.o.d by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”
To deny that the blessings of the jubilee extended to the servants from the _Gentiles_, makes Christianity _Judaism_. It not only eclipses the glory of the Gospel, but strikes out the sun. The refusal to release servants at the jubilee falsified and disannulled a grand leading type of the atonement, and was a libel on the doctrine of Christ's redemption. Finally, even if _forever_ did refer to _individual_ service, we have ample precedents for limiting the term by the jubilee.
The same word defines the length of time which _Jewish_ servants served who did not go out in the _seventh_ year. And all admit that they went out at the jubilee. Ex. xxi. 2-6; Deut. xv. 12-17. The 23d verse of the same chapter is quoted to prove that ”_forever_” in the 46th verse, extends beyond the jubilee. ”The land shall not be sold FOREVER, for the land is mine”--since it would hardly be used in different senses in the same general connection. As _forever_, in the 46th verse, respects the _general arrangement_, and not _individual service_ the objection does not touch the argument. Besides in the 46th verse, the word used, is _Olam_, meaning _throughout the period_, whatever that may be. Whereas in the 23d verse, it is _Tsemithuth_, meaning, a _cutting off_.
3. ”INHERITANCE AND POSSESSION,” ”Ye shall take them as an INHERITANCE for your children after you to inherit them for a possession.” This refers to the _nations_, and not to the _individual_ servants, procured from these nations. We have already shown, that servants could not be held as a _property_-possession, and inheritance; that they became servants of their _own accord_, and were paid wages; that they were released by law from their regular labor nearly _half the days in each year_, and thoroughly _instructed_; that the servants were _protected_ in all their personal, social and religious rights, equally with their masters &c. All remaining, after these ample reservations, would be small temptation, either to the l.u.s.t of power or of lucre; a profitable ”possession” and ”inheritance,” truly! What if our American slaves were all placed in _just such a condition_ Alas, for that soft, melodious circ.u.mlocution, ”Our PECULIAR species of property!” Verily, emphasis would be cadence, and euphony and irony meet together! What eager s.n.a.t.c.hes at mere words, and bald technics, irrespective of connection, principles of construction, Bible usages, or limitations of meaning by other pa.s.sages--and all to eke out such a sense as sanctifies existing usages, thus making G.o.d pander for l.u.s.t. The words _nahal_ and _nahala_, inherit and inheritance by no means necessarily signify _articles of property_. ”The people answered the king and said, we have none _inheritance_ in the son of Jesse.” 2 Chron. x. 16. Did they moan gravely to disclaim the holding of their kin; as an article of _property_? ”Children are an _heritage_ (inheritance) of the Lord.” Ps.
cxxvii. 3. ”Pardon our iniquity, and take us for thine _inheritance_.”
Ex. x.x.xiv. 9. When G.o.d pardons his enemies, and adopts them as children, does he make them _articles of property_? Are forgiveness, and chattel-making, synonymes? ”Thy testimonies have I taken as a _heritage_” (inheritance.) Ps. cxix. 111. ”_I_ am their _inheritance_.”
Ezek. xliv. 28. ”I will give thee the heathen for thine _inheritance_.”
Ps. ii. 8. ”For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his _inheritance_.” Ps. xciv 14. see also Deut. iv. 20; Josh.
xiii. 33; Ps. lx.x.xii. 8; lxxviii. 62, 71; Prov. xiv. 8. The question whether the servants were a PROPERTY-”_possession_,” has been already discussed--pp. 37-46--we need add in this place but a word, _ahuzza_ rendered ”_possession_.” ”And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a _possession_ in the land of Egypt.” Gen. xlii. 11. In what sense was Goshen the _possession_ of the Israelites? Answer, in the sense of _having it to live in_. In what sense were the Israelites to _possess_ these nations, and _take them_ as an _inheritance for their children_? Answer, they possessed them as a permanent source of supply for domestic or household servants. And this relation to these nations was to go down to posterity as a standing regulation, having the certainty and regularity of a descent by inheritance. The sense of the whole regulation may be given thus: ”Thy permanent domestics, which thou shalt have, shall be of the nations that are round about you, of _them_ shall ye get male and female domestics.” ”Moreover of the children of the foreigners that do sojourn among you, of _them_ shall ye get, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land, and _they_ shall be your permanent resource.” ”And ye shall take them as a _perpetual_ provision for your children after you, to hold as a _constant source of supply_. Always _of them_ shall ye serve yourselves.” The design of the pa.s.sage is manifest from its structure.
It was to point out the _cla.s.s_ of persons from which they were to get their supply of servants, and the _way_ in which they were to get them.
OBJECTION IV. ”If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a BOND-SERVANT, but as an HIRED-SERVANT, and as a sojourner shall he be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee.” Lev. xxv. 39, 40.
As only _one_ cla.s.s is called ”_hired_,” it is inferred that servants of the _other_ cla.s.s were _not paid_ for their labor. That G.o.d, with thundering anathemas against those who ”used their neighbor's service without wages,” granted a special indulgence to his chosen people to force others to work, and rob them of earnings, provided always, in selecting their victims, they spared ”the gentlemen of property and standing,” and pounced only upon the strangers and the common people.
The inference that ”_hired_” is synonymous with _paid_, and that those servants not _called_ ”hired” were not _paid_ for their labor, is a mere a.s.sumption. The meaning of the English verb _to hire_, is to procure for a _temporary_ use at a certain price--to engage a person to temporary service for wages. That is also the meaning of the Hebrew word ”_saukar_.” It is not used when the procurement of _permanent_ service is spoken of. Now, we ask, would _permanent_ servants, those who const.i.tuted a stationary part of the family, have been designated by the same term that marks _temporary_ servants? The every-day distinction on this subject, are familiar as table-talk. In many families the domestics perform only the _regular_ work. Whatever is occasional merely, as the was.h.i.+ng of a family, is done by persons hired expressly for the purpose.
The familiar distinction between the two cla.s.ses, is ”servants,” and ”hired help,” (not _paid_ help.) _Both cla.s.ses are paid_. One is permanent, the other occasional and temporary, and therefore in this case called ”_hired_[A].”
[Footnote A: To suppose a servant robbed of his earnings because he is not called a _hired_ servant is profound induction! If I employ a man at twelve dollars a month to work my farm, he is my ”_hired_” man, but if _I give him such a portion of the crop_, or in other words, if he works my farm ”_on shares_,” every farmer knows that he is no longer called my ”_hired_” man. Yet he works the same farm, in the same way, at the same time, and with the same teams and tools; and does the same amount of work in the year, and perhaps earns twenty dollars a month, instead of twelve. Now as he is no longer called ”_hired_,” and as he still works my farm, suppose my neighbours sagely infer, that since he is not my ”_hired_” laborer, I _rob_ him of his earnings and with all the gravity of owls, p.r.o.nounce the oracular decision, and hoot it abroad. My neighbors are deep divers!--like some theological professors, they not only go to the bottom but come up covered with the tokens.]
A variety of particulars are recorded distinguis.h.i.+ng _hired_ from _bought_ servants. (1.) Hired servants were paid daily at the close of their work. Lev. xix 13; Deut. xxiv. 14, 15; Job. vii. 2; Matt. xx. 8.
”_Bought_” servants were paid in advance, (a reason for their being called _bought_,) and those that went out at the seventh year received a _gratuity_. Deut. xv. 12, 13. (2.) The ”hired” were paid _in money_, the ”bought” received their _gratuity_, at least, in grain, cattle, and the product of the vintage. Deut. xiv. 17. (3.) The ”hired” _lived_ in their own families, the ”bought” were part of their masters' families. (4.) The ”hired” supported their families out of their wages: the ”bought”
and their families were supported by the master _besides_ their wages.
The ”bought” servants were, _as a cla.s.s, superior to the hired_--were more trust-worthy, had greater privileges, and occupied a higher station in society. (1.) They were intimately incorporated with the family of the masters, were guests at family festivals, and social solemnities, from which hired servants were excluded. Lev. xxii. 10; Ex. xii, 43, 45.
(2.) Their interests were far more identified with those of their masters' family. They were often, actually or prospectively, heirs of their masters' estates, as in the case of Eliezer, of Ziba, and the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. When there were no sons, or when they were unworthy, bought servants were made heirs. Prov. xvii. 2. We find traces of this usage in the New Testament. ”But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, this is the _heir_, come let us kill him, _that the inheritance may be ours._” Luke xx. 14. In no instance does a _hired_ servant inherit his master's estate. (3.) Marriages took place between servants and their master's daughters.
Sheshan had a _servant_, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha. And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant to wife. 1 Chron. ii. 34, 35.
There is no instance of a _hired_ servant forming such an alliance. (4.) Bought servants and their descendants were treated with the same affection and respect as the other members of the family.[A]. The treatment of Abraham's servants, Gen. xxv.--the intercourse between Gideon and his servant, Judg. vii. 10, 11; Saul and his servant, 1 Sam.
iv. 5, 22; Jonathan and his servant, 1 Sam. xiv. 1-14, and Elisha and his servant, are ill.u.s.trations. No such tie seems to have existed between _hired_ servants and their masters. Their untrustworthiness was proverbial. John ix. 12, 13. None but the _lowest cla.s.s_ engaged as hired servants, and the kinds of labor a.s.signed to them required little knowledge and skill. Various pa.s.sages show the low repute and trifling character of the cla.s.s from which they were hired. Judg. ix. 4; 1 Sam.
ii. 5. The superior condition of bought servants is manifest in the high trusts confided to them, and in their dignity and authority in the household. In no instance is a _hired_ servant thus distinguished. The _bought_ servant is manifestly the master's representative in the family--with plenipotentiary powers over adult children, even negotiating marriage for them. Abraham adjured his servant not to take a wife for Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites. The servant himself selected the individual. Servants also exercised discretionary power in the management of their masters' estates, ”And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, _for all the goods of his master were under his hand_.” Gen. xxiv. 10. The reason a.s.signed for taking them, is not that such was Abraham's direction, but that the servant had discretionary control. Servants had also discretionary power in the _disposal of property_. See Gen. xxiv. 22, 23, 53. The condition of Ziba in the house of Mephibosheth, is a case in point. So in Prov. xvii. 2.
Distinct traces of this estimation are to be found in the New Testament, Matt. xxiv. 45; Luke xii, 42, 44. So in the parable of the talents; the master seems to have set up each of his servants in trade with a large capital. The unjust steward had large _discretionary_ power, was ”accused of wasting his master's goods,” and manifestly regulated with his debtors, the _terms_ of settlement. Luke xvi. 4-8. Such trusts were never reposed in _hired_ servants.