Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

according to them. Unlike the Ten Commandments, they were
delivered privately to Moses.
The first of these related to servants. A Hebrew could not be
sold as a slave for life. His service was limited to six years and on
the seventh he was to be set free. The holding of non-Israelites as
slaves was permitted, but their life and person were strictly guarded.
The murderer of a slave was to be punished, and an injury inflicted
on a slave by his master, even if no more than the loss of a tooth,
entitled him to his freedom.
The Israelites were to be careful not to indulge the spirit of
cruelty like that which they had suffered under their Egyptian
taskmasters. The memory of their own bitter experience should
enable them to put themselves in the servant's place, and to be kind
and compassionate.
The rights of widows and orphans were specially guarded. "If
you afflict them in any way," the Lord declared, "and they cry at all
to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath will become hot,
and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and
your children fatherless." Foreigners who united themselves with
Israel were to be protected from wrong or oppression. "You shall
not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because
you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Charging interest on a loan to the poor was forbidden. A poor
person's garment or blanket taken as a pledge for a loan must be
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