Leviticus 25:43
◄  Leviticus 25:43  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly.

English Standard Version (©2001)
You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
'You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
You are not to rule over them harshly but fear your God.

International Standard Version (©2012)
You are not to rule over them with harshness. You are to fear your God."

NET Bible (©2006)
You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Do not treat them harshly. Fear your God.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
You shall not rule over him with harshness; but shall fear your God.

American King James Version
You shall not rule over him with rigor; but shall fear your God.

American Standard Version
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Afflict him not by might, but fear thy God.

Darby Bible Translation
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; and thou shalt fear thy God.

English Revised Version
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.

World English Bible
You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

Young's Literal Translation
thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:39-55 A native Israelite, if sold for debt, or for a crime, was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh. If he sold himself, through poverty, both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col 4:1. At the year of jubilee the servant should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family. This typified redemption from the service of sin and Satan, by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, Joh 8:32. We cannot ransom our fellow-sinners, but we may point out Christ to them; while by his grace our lives may adorn his gospel, express our love, show our gratitude, and glorify his holy name.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 43. - Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God, is paralleled by the New Testament injunction, "And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him" (Ephesians 6:9).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour,.... As the Egyptians ruled over the Israelites, and made them to serve, Exodus 1:13; where the same word is used as here, and seems designed to put them in mind of it, that so they might abstain from such usage of their brethren, which they had met with from their most cruel enemies; it signifies tyranny and oppression, treating them with great severity, laying hard and heavy tasks and burdens upon them they could not bear; enjoining them things they could not perform, and ordering them to do what were unnecessary, and without any limitation with respect to time:

but shalt fear thy God; that has been good to thee, and has brought thee out of hard and rigorous bondage in Egypt; and which should be remembered with thankfulness, and they should fear to offend so good a God by using a brother cruelly.

Leviticus 25:43 Parallel Commentaries

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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Redemption of Bondmen
…42For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as slaves. 43You shall not rule over him with rigor; but shall fear your God. 44Both your slaves, and your bondmaids, which you shall have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall you buy slaves and bondmaids. …

Ephesians 6:9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Colossians 4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Genesis 42:18 On the third day, Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:
Exodus 1:13 and worked them ruthlessly.
Exodus 1:14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
Leviticus 25:42 Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.
Leviticus 25:44 "'Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.
Leviticus 25:46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Leviticus 25:53 They are to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those to whom they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly.
Ezekiel 34:4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.