Women at Work in the Deuteronomistic History - International Voices ...

100 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
And in the Bible we find the institutions of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years,
which served the same purpose of reinstating justice by commutation of debts
(therefore, restitution of debt slaves to freedom) and redistribution of land. 68
Contractual Manumission. Finally, slave owners could free their slaves. This is
how I understand Abraham’s sending Hagar and Ishmael away in Gen 21, even
though the narrative lacks a description of such a procedure. 69 Also biblical laws
on manumission (Exod 21:1–6; Deut 15:16–17) contemplate both options for
the indentured Israelite (according to the Deuteronomy version, also Israelitess).
That he may choose to stay as a permanent slave because “he loves his wife”
given by his master indicates that they could also have opted to leave after six
years: option to stay is the exception that needs legislation. The ceremony
prescribed would probably have contractual enforcement or serve as such.
Manumission laws appear also in the Covenant Code, Deut 15 and Lev 25.
Since the biblical material is scattered throughout different books and laws and
narratives contradict each other, it is impossible to deal with them thoroughly
without writing another book. 70 At this point what is important to remember is
that the laws make a distinction between foreign slaves and indentured
Israelites; that they make gender differences when her sexuality is involved; and
that they foresee release of debt slaves. Since the Hebrew uses the same terms
for all types of slaves (and even for servants who would not have been slaves), it
is not always clear what kind of situation they envision and what kind of
manumission.
This concludes the sub-section on manumission. The variety of forms and
of attestations for the ANE speaks of society’s mechanisms through which some
of its slaves are re-integrated into society, usually staying close to their former
masters. Although Greco-Roman society has not been discussed here, it comes
to mind in a special way when one thinks of freedmen and freedwomen. One
reason for their importance then is that slave numbers were much higher than in
the ANE, making significant also the number of freed people.
הקדצו, does not refer to the proper execution of justice, but rather expresses, in a general sense,
social justice and equity, which is bound up with kindness and mercy.”
68 As Westbrook, Property, 47 notes, the Mesopotamian mēšarum was rather unpredictable, and
consequently they intended to avoid the social and economic speculation that would have come with
their announcement or periodic implementation. The biblical institutions, on the other hand, were
cyclical, thus predictable. It is not clear how well these devices worked, or if they were ever put into
practice. See also S. Kaufman, “A Reconstruction of the Social Welfare Systems in Ancient Israel,”
in In the Shelter of Elyon: Essays on Ancient Palestinian Life and Literature in Honor of G. W.
Ahlström (ed. W. Barrick & J. Spencer; JSOTSup 31; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1984), 277–86.
69 Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, 219, mentions abundant examples from Babylonia.
70 At any rate, some of these laws are dealt with in chapter 4.