What Does Deuteronomy 15:18 Mean in the King James?
It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
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
The verse makes release the fitting end of labor by naming the departing servant’s service as worth twice a hired worker’s.
THE MEANING
Your authority over another person’s labor has a limit: after six years, the servant is released. His service counts as double a hired worker’s, and the verse holds that recognition beside the promise that the LORD your God blesses all you do.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Keeping a person’s labor after years of service is your right, and releasing them means taking a loss.
THE ROOT
שִׁלֵּחַ
shilleaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send, send forth, release, let go.
“sendest him away” in this verse is shilleaḥ. The verb makes freedom an act of sending someone out from your authority and onward. Release here is more than ending service; it is letting the person go forth.
ALSO GROWS
shilleaḥ: Send away; release.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This is the verb in the verse: the servant is sent away free.
Shiloach: Sent water; the name of the Siloam pool.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same root’s image of what is sent forth connects release with movement outward.
שָׂכִיר
sākhîr
GROWS FROM
שכר
Hire for wages; pay for service.
The verse measures the servant’s years against wage-paid labor. English can make “worth a double hired servant” sound like a comparison of status, while the Hebrew places the value of his service in view.
ALSO GROWS
sākār: Wages; payment for work.
שָׂכָר
This branch brings the wage measure behind the comparison into view.
sākhar: Hire; pay for service.
שָׂכַר
The verb names the paid labor against which the servant’s six years are measured.
חָפְשִׁי
ḥop̄šî
GROWS FROM
חפש
Freedom; release from service.
“free” in this verse is ḥop̄šî. The word names a condition of freedom, not merely a change of employer. The verse makes that freedom the destination of the servant’s years of labor.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōpheš: Freedom; release.
חֹפֶשׁ
The related noun names the state the servant enters when sent away.
ḥop̄šî: Free; released from service.
חָפְשִׁי
This is the word used for the servant’s condition at release.
THE PATTERN
Service and captivity have limits: release arrives as a rightful boundary, not a favor that erases a person’s worth.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.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
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.The same Hebrew word חָפְשִׁי (ḥop̄šî, free) names the condition at the end of service. Deuteronomy adds that the released worker’s years carry measurable worth, so freedom and recognition arrive together.
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