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ʿEved: Service and Subordination in Ancient Hebrew

A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.

A Hebrew word whose status depends on each rule’s kinship, ownership and duration; not one modern legal category.

Cuneiform tablet from Babylon, ca. 554 BCE, catalogued by the Met as a proxy contract for the purchase of an enslaved person from the Egibi archive. It is Neo-Babylonian, centuries later than Hammurapi; its inscription, not read here, does not establish that any particular Torah or Hammurapi rule governed this transaction. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 79.7.11; Public Domain
Cuneiform tablet from Babylon, ca. 554 BCE, catalogued by the Met as a proxy contract for the purchase of an enslaved person from the Egibi archive. It is Neo-Babylonian, centuries later than Hammurapi; its inscription, not read here, does not establish that any particular Torah or Hammurapi rule governed this transaction. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 79.7.11; Public DomainThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 79.7.11; Public Domain · Public domainObject record

Text

*ʿEved* occurs in differing arrangements in Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 15 and Leviticus 25. One Exodus case releases a HebrewHebrewA Northwest Semitic language in the Canaanite group, with ancient and modern forms.Glossary · Click to read the explanation servant in the seventh year, but a master-provided wife and her children can remain; Leviticus protects an Israelite kinsman while permitting ownership of outsiders. The word alone establishes neither how service began nor how it ended. [4][5][6]

References and notes

  1. Exodus 21:2–27, Hebrew text and older JPS translation, with attention to cited cases Exodus 21:2–11, 16, 20–21, 26–27; Hebrew and JPS 1917 Return to the text ↑
  2. Deuteronomy 15:7–18, Hebrew text and older JPS translation Deuteronomy 15:7–18; Hebrew and JPS 1917 Return to the text ↑
  3. Leviticus 25:39–46 in chapter context, Hebrew and older JPS translation Leviticus 25:39–46; Hebrew and JPS 1917 Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.

  1. Edition 3 · 13 October 2026 · aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

  2. Edition 2 · 12 October 2026 · editor:aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

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Cite this record

IL Archive, «ʿEved: Service and Subordination in Ancient Hebrew», Edition 3, https://ilarchive.com/en/entities/eved-servant-ancient-israel