808 verses about Slavery

They came to Holofernes’ tent, and said to him that was over all that he had, “Wake our lord up, now; for the slaves have been bold to come down against us to battle, that they may be utterly destroyed.”

“The slaves have dealt treacherously! One woman of the Hebrews has brought shame upon the house of king Nebuchadnezzar; for, behold, Holofernes lies upon the ground, and his head is not on him!”

Let the king appoint local governors in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them select fair, chaste young ladies and bring them to the city Susa, into the women’s apartment. Let them be consigned to the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women. Then let things for purification and other needs be given to them.

He had been brought as a prisoner from Jerusalem, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into captivity.

And because the king’s ordinance was published, many ladies were gathered to the city of Susa under the hand of Hegai; and Esther was brought to Hegai, the keeper of the women.

So the king took off his ring, and gave it into the hands of Haman, to seal the decrees against the Jews.

The king said to Haman, “Keep the silver, and treat the nation as you will.”

For both I and my people are sold for destruction, and pillage, and slavery; both we and our children for bondmen and bondwomen: and I consented not to it, for the is not worthy of the king’s palace.

Because I am your bondman and the son of your handmaid, A man weak and short-lived, And of small power to understand judgement and laws.

Wisdom delivered a holy people and a blameless seed from a nation of oppressors.

And this became a hidden danger to life, Because men, in bondage either to calamity or to tyranny, Invested stones and stocks with the incommunicable Name.

For well did the Egyptians deserve to be deprived of light and imprisoned by darkness, They who had kept in close ward your sons, Through whom the incorruptible light of the law was to be given to the race of men.

How that, having changed their minds to let your people go, And having speeded them eagerly on their way, They would repent themselves and pursue them.

For whereas the men of Sodom received not the strangers when they came among them; The Egyptians made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.

Whereas these first welcomed with feastings, And then afflicted with dreadful toils, Them that had already shared with them in the same rights.

Entreat not evil a servant that works truly, Nor a hireling that gives you his life.

Let your soul love a wise servant; Defraud him not of liberty.

Free men will minister to a wise servant; And a man that has knowledge will not murmur thereat.

Wild asses are the prey of lions in the wilderness; So poor men are pasture for the rich.

For the yoke thereof is a yoke of iron, And the bands thereof are bands of brass.

Suretiship has undone many that were prospering, And shaken them as a wave of the sea: Mighty men has it driven from their homes; And they wandered among strange nations.

It is a miserable life to go from house to house: And where you are a sojourner, you shall not dare to open your mouth.

Whilst you yet live, and breath is in you, Give not yourself over to anybody.

Fodder, a stick, and burdens, for an ass; Bread, and discipline, and work, for a servant.

Set your servant to work, and you shall find rest: Leave his hands idle, and he will seek liberty.

Yoke and thong will bow the neck: And for an evil servant there are racks and tortures.

Set him to work, as is fit for him; And if he obey not, make his fetters heavy.

If you have a servant, let him be as yourself, Because you have bought him with blood.

If you have a servant, treat him as yourself; For as your own soul will you have need of him: If you treat him ill, and he depart and run away, Which way will you go to seek him?

As one that slays his neighbor is he that takes away his living; And as a shedder of blood is he that depriveth a hireling of his hire.

Of indifferent selling of merchants; And of much correction of children; And of making the side of an evil servant to bleed.

after that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried away Jechonias, and the princes, and the captives, and the mighty men, and the people of the land, from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon.

and the Lord will give us strength, and lighten our eyes, and we shall live under the shadow of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Baltasar his son, and we shall serve them many days, and find favor in their sight.

Wherefore the plagues clave to us, and the curse, which the Lord commanded Moses his servant to pronounce in the day that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that flows with milk and honey, as at this day.

Thus says the Lord, Bow your shoulders to serve the king of Babylon, and remain in the land that I gave to your fathers.

for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting has brought upon them.

Let those who dwell about Sion come, and remember you⌃ the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting has brought upon them.

Miserable are the cities which your children served: miserable is she that received your sons.

A copy of an epistle, which Jeremy sent to them which were to be led captives into Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to certify them, as it was commanded him of God.

Because of the sins which you⌃ have committed before God, you⌃ shall be led away captives to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor king of the Babylonians.

Now when the king saw that they pressed him sore, being constrained, the king delivered Daniel to them:

And his servants bare rule, each one in his place.

And they led captive the women and the children, and the cattle they took in possession.

her adorning is all taken away; instead of a free woman she is become a bond woman:

And the merchants of the country heard the fame of them, and took silver and gold exceeding much, with fetters, and came into the camp to take the children of Israel for servants: and there were added to them the forces of Syria and of the land of the Philistines.

And there came to him from other kingdoms, and from isles of the sea, bands of hired soldiers.

and they took him alive, and appointed that both he and such as reigned after him should give them a great tribute, and should give hostages, and a parcel of land, to wit,

and the thing was known to them, and they sent against them a captain, and fought against them, and many of them fell down wounded to death, and they made captive their wives and their children, and plundered them, and conquered their land, and pulled down their strongholds, and plundered them, and brought them into bondage to this day:

and the residue of the kingdoms and of the isles, as many as rose up against them at any time, they destroyed and made them to be their servants;

and that they should take the yoke from them; for they saw that the kingdom of the Greeks did keep Israel in bondage.

And he took the sons of the chief men of the country for hostages, and put them in ward in the citadel at Jerusalem.

And Jonathan had knowledge thereof, and sent ambassadors to him, to the end that they should make peace with him, and that he should restore to them the captives.

And every soul of the Jews, that has been carried captive from the land of Judah into any part of my kingdom, I set at liberty without price; and let all remit the tributes of their cattle also.

It is for money which Jonathan your brother owed to the king’s treasure, by reason of the offices which he had, that we hold him fast.

And now send a hundred talents of silver, and two of his sons for hostages, that when he is set at liberty he may not revolt from us, and we will set him at liberty.

And he sent the children and the hundred talents. And he dealt falsely, and did not set Jonathan at liberty.

Now while such was the state of things, it came to pass that they of Tarsus and Mallus made insurrection, because they were to be given as a present to Antiochis, the king’s concubine.

he sent that lord of pollutions Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him to kill all those that were of full age, and to sell the women and the younger men.

And Nicanor undertook by the sale of the captive Jews to make up for the king the tribute of two thousand talents which he was to pay to the Romans.

And immediately he sent to the cities upon the sea coast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves, promising to allow fourscore and ten slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgement that was to follow upon him from the Almighty.

And others sold all that was left over to them, and withal implored the Lord to deliver those who had been sold as slaves by the impious Nicanor or ever he met them;

And the thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews for slaves,

being through the help of the Lord humbled by them who in his eyes were held to be of least account, put off his glorious apparel, and passing through the midland, shunning all company like a fugitive slave, arrived at Antioch, having, as he thought, had the greatest possible good fortune, though his army was destroyed.

And Joakim bound the nobles: but Zarakes his brother he apprehended, and brought him up out of Egypt.

And against him Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon came up, and bound him with a chain of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

So after a year Nabuchodonosor sent and caused him to be brought to Babylon with the holy vessels of the Lord;

And they took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, with the vessels of the ark of the Lord, and the king’s treasures, and carried them away to Babylon.

and as for her glorious things, they never ceased till they had brought them all to nothing: and the people that were not slain with the sword he carried to Babylon:

and they were servants to him and to his children, till the Persians reigned, to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremy:

it makes the mind of the king and of the fatherless child to be all one; of the bondman and of the freeman, of the poor man and of the rich:

But yet is the king stronger: and he is their lord, and has dominion over them; and in whatever he commands them they obey him.

Likewise for those that are no soldiers, and have not to do with wars, but use husbandry, when they have reaped again that which they had sown, they bring it to the king, and compel one another to pay tribute to the king.

And he is but one man: if he command to kill, they kill; if he command to spare, they spare;

if he command to strike, they strike; if he command to make desolate, they make desolate; if he command to build, they build;

The sons of the servants of Solomon: the sons of Assaphioth, the sons of Pharida, the sons of Jeeli, the sons of Lozon, the sons of Isdael, the sons of Saphuthi,

So all they of Israel, from twelve years old and upward, beside menservants and women servants, were in number forty and two thousand three hundred and sixty.

Their menservants and handmaids were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: the minstrels and singers, two hundred forty and five:

and they pulled down the house, and burned it, and carried away the people captives to Babylon.

And for our sins and our fathers’ we with our kindred and our kings and our priests were given up to the kings of the earth, to the sword, and to captivity, and for a prey with shame, to this day.

and to discover to us a light in the house of the Lord our God, and to give us food in the time of our servitude.

Yes, when we were in bondage, we were not forsaken of our Lord; but he made us gracious before the kings of Persia, so that they gave us food,

You did make known your power when you caused the bold Pharaoh, the enslaver of your people, to pass through the ordeal of many and diverse inflictions.

that those who were thus registered, were to be marked on their persons by the ivy-leaf symbol of Dionysus, and to be set apart with these limited rights.

Whoever shall inform against the Jews, besides receiving the property of the person charged, shall be presented with two thousand drachmas from the royal treasury, shall be made free, and shall be crowned.

Bound, and exposed to public gaze, they were hurried violently on board ship.

They were dragged along by unyielding chains, like wild beasts: of these, some had their necks thrust into the benches of the rowers; while the feet of others were enclosed in hard fetters.

The planks of the deck above them barred out the light, and shut out the day on every side, so that they might be treated like traitors during the whole voyage.

They were conveyed accordingly in this vessel, and at the end of it arrived at Schedia. The king had ordered them to be cast into the vast hippodrome, which was built in front of the city. This place was well adapted by its situation to expose them to the gaze of all comers into the city, and of those who went from the city into the country. Thus they could hold no communication with his forces; nay, were deemed unworthy of any civilized accommodation.

The underlings appointed for the purpose went out about evening and bound the hands of the miserable victims, and took other precautions for their security at night, thinking that the whole race would perish together.

The heathen believed the Jews to be destitute of all protection; for chains fettered them about.

They brought them fettered in grievous chains as slaves, nay, as traitors. Without enquiry or examination they endeavoured to annihilate them. They buckled themselves with a savage cruelty, worse than Scythian custom.

the son of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi; which was captive in the land of the Medes, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of the Persians.

Did I not bring them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage? but they have provoked me to wrath, and have despised my counsels.

saying, Why have you brought us into this wilderness to kill us? it had been better for us to have served the Egyptians, than to die in this wilderness.

Thus says the Lord, I brought this people out of bondage, and I gave them my commandments by my servants the prophets; whom they would not hear, but set my counsels at nothing.

And it came to pass, that when you led his seed out of Egypt, you brought them up to the mount Sinai.

or know you not that Israel is committed to you in the land of their captivity?

And he answered me, and said, Since you have found favor in my sight, I will show you this also: The day of judgement is a day of decision, and displays to all the seal of truth; even as now a father sends not his son, or a son his father, or a master his slave, or a friend him that is most dear, that in his stead he may be sick, or sleep, or eat, or be healed:

our lute is brought low, our song is put to silence, our rejoicing is at an end; the light of our candlestick is put out, the ark of our covenant is plundered, our holy things are defiled, and the name that is called upon us is profaned; our freemen are despitefully treated, our priests are burned, our Levites are gone into captivity, our virgins are defiled, and our wives ravished; our righteous men carried away, our little ones betrayed, our young men are brought into bondage, and our strong men are become weak;

these are the ten tribes, which were led away out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmananser the king of the Assyrians led away captive, and he carried them beyond the River, and they were carried into another land.