Misinterpretations often twist this verse to defend modern chattel slavery or racism, claiming the Bible endorses owning humans as property forever without limits, ignoring its specific ancient Israelite context of regulating war captives or voluntary foreigners distinct from debt-bound Hebrews who gained Jubilee freedom, the prohibitions against rigor or abuse implied elsewhere like Exodus 21, Sabbath provisions for all slaves, and the overarching biblical trajectory toward liberation and equality in Christ as in Galatians 3:28, reducing a theocratic statute to a timeless endorsement of oppression.
Leviticus 25:46
King James Version (1769)
46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.
This verse concludes the Mosaic law on slavery in the Year of Jubilee context, permitting Israelites to purchase non-Hebrew slaves from surrounding nations or resident foreigners as lifelong bondservants who could be inherited by their children, establishing perpetual servitude for them while prohibiting harsh rule over fellow Israelites, thus upholding God's covenant distinctions, protecting Hebrew brethren with redemption rights, and regulating economic and social structures in ancient Israel to reflect divine justice and mercy amid prevalent ancient Near Eastern customs.