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100 Bible Verses about Slavery

Galatians 3:28 ESV / 11,316 helpful votes

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 5:1 ESV / 10,328 helpful votes

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Colossians 4:1 ESV / 10,157 helpful votes

Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Exodus 21:16 ESV / 10,019 helpful votes

“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.

Titus 2:9-10 ESV / 9,801 helpful votes

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

Ephesians 6:5 ESV / 9,400 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

Leviticus 25:44-46 ESV / 8,796 helpful votes

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Luke 4:18 ESV / 8,034 helpful votes

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

Exodus 21:20-21 ESV / 8,025 helpful votes

“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

1 Peter 2:16 ESV / 7,987 helpful votes

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

1 Peter 2:18 ESV / 7,899 helpful votes

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

Philemon 1:16 ESV / 7,765 helpful votes

No longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Exodus 21:26-27 ESV / 7,334 helpful votes

“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

Ephesians 6:9 ESV / 7,001 helpful votes

Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Deuteronomy 23:15 ESV / 6,292 helpful votes

“You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.

Exodus 21:1-36 ESV / 6,231 helpful votes

“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ...

Exodus 21:2 ESV / 5,933 helpful votes

When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.

Deuteronomy 24:7 ESV / 5,852 helpful votes

“If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

1 Corinthians 12:13 ESV / 5,741 helpful votes

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

John 8:34 ESV / 5,719 helpful votes

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Deuteronomy 5:15 ESV / 5,699 helpful votes

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

1 Timothy 6:1 ESV / 5,682 helpful votes

Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.

Romans 6:22 ESV / 5,560 helpful votes

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Romans 8:15 ESV / 5,434 helpful votes

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Proverbs 22:7 ESV / 5,231 helpful votes

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

John 8:36 ESV / 5,230 helpful votes

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

1 Timothy 1:10 ESV / 5,197 helpful votes

The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

Proverbs 12:24 ESV / 5,189 helpful votes

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Isaiah 58:6 ESV / 5,174 helpful votes

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

1 Timothy 6:1-2 ESV / 5,173 helpful votes

Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things.

Colossians 3:22 ESV / 5,061 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Exodus 21:20 ESV / 4,873 helpful votes

“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.

Proverbs 22:16 ESV / 4,862 helpful votes

Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

Romans 6:5-6 ESV / 4,803 helpful votes

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

1 Corinthians 7:21 ESV / 4,776 helpful votes

Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)

Ephesians 6:5-9 ESV / 4,710 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Exodus 21:2-6 ESV / 4,663 helpful votes

When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

Exodus 21:7 ESV / 4,499 helpful votes

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.

Leviticus 25:39 ESV / 4,458 helpful votes

“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:

Luke 12:47-48 ESV / 4,456 helpful votes

And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Leviticus 25:44 ESV / 4,447 helpful votes

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you.

Exodus 21:7-11 ESV / 4,422 helpful votes

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Matthew 20:26-27 ESV / 4,252 helpful votes

It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,

Romans 1:1 ESV / 4,187 helpful votes

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Exodus 21:32 ESV / 4,145 helpful votes

If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Deuteronomy 15:12-18 ESV / 4,046 helpful votes

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, ...

Deuteronomy 23:15-16 ESV / 4,042 helpful votes

“You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

1 Corinthians 7:21-23 ESV / 3,996 helpful votes

Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.

Deuteronomy 15:12 ESV / 3,911 helpful votes

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

Ephesians 6:5-8 ESV / 3,799 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

Leviticus 25:43 ESV / 3,762 helpful votes

You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God.

Ephesians 6:6 ESV / 3,510 helpful votes

Not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

Titus 2:9 ESV / 3,459 helpful votes

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,

Leviticus 25:1-55 ESV / 3,458 helpful votes

The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ...

Exodus 22:3 ESV / 3,434 helpful votes

But if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 3,287 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

1 Timothy 1:9-10 ESV / 3,182 helpful votes

Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

Acts 17:26 ESV / 3,090 helpful votes

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

Genesis 9:25 ESV / 2,869 helpful votes

He said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Deuteronomy 15:12-15 ESV / 2,778 helpful votes

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.

Romans 6:2 ESV / 2,744 helpful votes

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Leviticus 19:20 ESV / 2,743 helpful votes

“If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free;

Exodus 21:8 ESV / 2,698 helpful votes

If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her.

Exodus 21:12 ESV / 2,671 helpful votes

“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.

1 Corinthians 12:1-13:13 ESV / 2,660 helpful votes

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ...

Deuteronomy 21:10-14 ESV / 2,655 helpful votes

“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

Luke 4:1-18:43 ESV / 2,652 helpful votes

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ...

Proverbs 12:1-24:34 ESV / 2,636 helpful votes

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns. No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. ...

Exodus 21:1 ESV / 2,628 helpful votes

“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.

Exodus 21:18-21 ESV / 2,593 helpful votes

“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed. “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

Luke 16:13 ESV / 2,577 helpful votes

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Exodus 21:4 ESV / 2,575 helpful votes

If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone.

Leviticus 25:46 ESV / 2,535 helpful votes

You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Colossians 3:11 ESV / 2,498 helpful votes

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Leviticus 25:53 ESV / 2,443 helpful votes

He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight.

Galatians 3:28-29 ESV / 2,424 helpful votes

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Deuteronomy 20:14 ESV / 2,417 helpful votes

But the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.

Leviticus 19:20-22 ESV / 2,380 helpful votes

“If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; but he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.

Exodus 20:10 ESV / 2,372 helpful votes

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

Genesis 15:13-14 ESV / 2,330 helpful votes

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

Proverbs 22:2 ESV / 2,301 helpful votes

The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 2,235 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Exodus 21:6 ESV / 2,229 helpful votes

Then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

Jeremiah 34:14 ESV / 2,222 helpful votes

‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service.’ But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me.

Leviticus 19:33-34 ESV / 2,212 helpful votes

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Colossians 3:22-24 ESV / 2,202 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Matthew 10:24 ESV / 2,092 helpful votes

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

Deuteronomy 15:16-17 ESV / 2,083 helpful votes

But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same.

Luke 12:43-48 ESV / 2,055 helpful votes

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. ...

Matthew 25:46 ESV / 2,033 helpful votes

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Exodus 22:2-3 ESV / 2,007 helpful votes

If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him, but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

Exodus 21:11 ESV / 1,993 helpful votes

And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Jeremiah 34:9 ESV / 1,988 helpful votes

That everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.

Isaiah 58:2 ESV / 1,980 helpful votes

Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

Leviticus 25:38-46 ESV / 1,964 helpful votes

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ...

Exodus 21:1-4 ESV / 1,920 helpful votes

“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone.

Proverbs 30:10 ESV / 1,784 helpful votes

Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

Exodus 20:1-26 ESV / 1,770 helpful votes

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ...

John 3:16-17 ESV / 1,723 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Romans 1:30 ESV / 1,674 helpful votes

Slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

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