³⁹ “‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves.^{(A) 40} They are to be treated as hired workers^(B) or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property^(C) of their ancestors.^(D)

² All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered^(A) around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.

⁵ Although we are of the same flesh and blood^(A) as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.^(B) Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”^(C)

²⁵ Since he was not able to pay,^(A) the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold^(B) to repay the debt.