44. The male and female slaves that you possess—these you shall acquire from the nations round about you.
45. You may also acquire them from among the resident aliens who reside with you, and from their families who are with you, those whom they bore in your land. These you may possess,
46. and bequeath to your children as their hereditary possession forever. You may treat them as slaves. But none of you shall lord it harshly over any of your fellow Israelites.
47. When your kindred, having been so reduced to poverty, sell themselves to a resident alien who has become wealthy or to descendants of a resident alien’s family,
48. even after having sold themselves, they still may be redeemed by one of their kindred,
49. by an uncle or cousin, or by some other relative from their family; or, having acquired the means, they may pay the redemption price themselves.
50. With the purchaser they shall compute the years from the sale to the jubilee, distributing the sale price over these years as though they had been hired as laborers.
51. The more years there are, the more of the sale price they shall pay back as the redemption price;
52. the fewer years there are before the jubilee year, the more they have as credit; in proportion to the years of service they shall pay the redemption price.
53. The tenant alien shall treat those who sold themselves as laborers hired on an annual basis, and the alien shall not lord it over them harshly before your very eyes.
54. And if they are not redeemed by these means, they shall nevertheless be released, together with any children, in the jubilee year.
55. For the Israelites belong to me as servants; they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, I, the Lord, your God.