What Does Deuteronomy 15:12 Mean in the King James?
And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Freedom here is an action: the person held in service is sent forth, not merely declared free.
THE MEANING
This verse does not hide the sale or the service; it puts an end date on the claim. After six years, the person is sent away free from the one who held them. Release here is a concrete separation, not merely a change in how the person is described.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that someone’s usefulness to another gives that person an unlimited claim over them.
THE ROOT
תְּשַׁלְּחֶנּוּ
teshallchenu
GROWS FROM
שלח
send, send forth; by extension, release or let go
“let him go” in this verse is teshallchenu. The verb means sending forth, while the next word names the free state the person enters. Release is pictured as an actual departure from the holder’s authority, not only an inward or verbal change.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: sending away, dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This form shows the same root describing an enacted departure: release means someone is sent out from where they were held.
Shiloach: sent; a name associated with a watercourse or pool
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 interprets Siloam as Sent; this root’s language of sending forth echoes the verse’s concrete movement out from another’s hold.
חָפְשִׁי
chofshi
GROWS FROM
חפש
be free; exist outside bondage
The verse names both the act of sending the person away and the state of freedom that follows. The person is not simply no longer serving; they are free from the one who held them.
ALSO GROWS
chofesh: freedom, a free state
חֹפֶשׁ
The noun makes explicit the condition the verse’s sending away brings about.
chofshi: free
חָפְשִׁי
This is the verse’s word for the person’s state after the service ends.
THE PATTERN
Freedom becomes real through release from the authority or confinement that holds a person or people.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:The next verse repeats שׁלח (shalach, send forth or release) and then forbids sending the person away empty. It opens this release into a concrete transition: freedom includes what the departing person carries into life beyond service.
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