What Does Leviticus 25:42 Mean?
For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold in a servant's sale.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both “my servants” and “bondmen”: service remains, while the sale of a person into human ownership is forbidden.
THE MEANING
You are named among the LORD’s servants, already brought out of Egypt and held by the one who brought you out. The verse draws a concrete boundary around that belonging: you are not to be sold as a bondman.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that serving means you can be bought, sold, or owned by any human power.
THE ROOT
עֲבָדַי
avaday
GROWS FROM
עבד
Work, serve.
“servants / bondmen” in this verse is avaday. The Hebrew uses the עבד family for both “my servants” and the bondman in the prohibited sale. The verse leaves service in place but refuses the sale that would put a person under another human’s claim.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To work or serve.
עָבַד
This verb is the seed behind both the people called “my servants” and the bondman they cannot be sold as.
avodah: Work, service.
עֲבוֹדָה
The shared word family keeps service itself in view; the verse sets a boundary around whose claim can govern it.
הוֹצֵאתִי
hōṣē’tî
GROWS FROM
יצא
Go out, come out; in this causative form, bring out.
“brought out” in this verse is hōṣē’tî. The speaker says, “I brought them out”, the exit is already enacted before the prohibition on sale is stated. The verse grounds its boundary against bondage in that prior bringing-out.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out, come out.
יָצָא
The root carries the movement out of Egypt that the verse makes the basis of its claim.
hotsi: To bring out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form makes clear that the speaker is the one who brings the people out.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
Bind, confine, or press into a tight place; צַר names what is narrow.
Mitzrayim echoes צַר (tsar, “narrow”) with the dual ending -ayim: “the two narrows.” Being brought out of Egypt thus carries the arc from constriction toward spaciousness, and the verse refuses a return to bondage.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight.
צַר
This echo lets the name Mitzrayim carry the sense of constriction in the verse’s movement out.
metsar: A strait or narrow place.
מֵצַר
This related word makes the narrow-place imagery audible in the name of the land the people are brought out of.
THE PATTERN
The one who brings people out of bondage establishes a boundary against their return to human ownership.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.You were bought with a price. Do not become the servants of humans.Stand, then, in the freedom for which the Anointed One set us free, and do not be caught again in the yoke of slavery.THE THREAD
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.Exodus 20:2 uses the same יצא root in “brought thee out” and the same עבד root in “house of bondage.” Together, the verses show the prior bringing-out defining the boundary around who can claim a person.
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