The Release of Hebrew Slaves: 15:12–18 This law, sometimes called the law of “manumission” (i.e., release from slavery), is also based on the first law in the Book of the Covenant (Exod. 21:2–11). As with the above š e miṭṭâ law, which comes straight after the account of the exodus, it preserves the basic intention of the original law (Hebrew slaves should be granted freedom after six years of service) but adds some typically Deuteronomic extras.

If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman . . . It is very probable that the word “Hebrew” here has a socioeconomic meaning rather than a merely ethnic one. There is wide (though not universal) agreement that the word is linked to ʿapîru, a term used throughout the ancient Near East for a class of people who, having been uprooted from their original env…