Status of a wife provided to a freed slave

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First, we must understand these slavery/servanthood laws against a background motivation: that the voluntary slavery/servanthood system of Biblical law functioned as a kind of welfare system to protect and support those who had difficulty providing independently for themselves. Except (perhaps) in the case of laws that forced servanthood upon property criminals who were paying back their debt, all other servitude laws had the goal of eventually freeing everyone who was in servitude (if they were capable of providing for themselves -- obviously some people were not capable of sustaining themselves because of some disability or other).

Female slaves/servants would be set free in their seventh year if they were able to be supported/protected by someone, such as a husband or relative. They would not be forced to provide for themselves in a subsistence economy with no land possession. On the other hand, if a master gave a wife to his servant, the servant has incurred an additional debt of a bridewealth payment (there is a similar example in the case of Joseph/Laban). He gets the benefit of having a wife and being able to produce children, but he has not yet demonstrated that he can support her independently. Rather than burden him -- along with his own freedom -- with the responsibility to also support a wife (and possibly children), the master continues in that responsibility until the freed servant can pay him a bridewealth payment as a "redemption" for her.


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