received, and not at all that the Egyptians were bereft of their personal ownership, and made articles of property.  And this buying of services (in this case it was but one-fifth part) is called in Scripture usage, buying the persons.  This case claims special notice, as it is the only one where the whole transaction of buying servants is detailed—­the preliminaries, the process, the mutual acquiescence, and the permanent relation resulting therefrom.  In all other instances, the mere fact is stated without particulars.  In this case, the whole process is laid open. (1.) The persons “bought,” sold themselves, and of their own accord. (2.) Obtaining permanently the services of persons, or even a portion of them, is called “buying” those persons.  The objector, at the outset, takes it for granted, that servants were bought of third persons; and thence infers that they were articles of property.  Both the alleged fact and the inference are sheer assumptions.  No instance is recorded, under the Mosaic system, in which a master sold his servant.  That servants who were “bought” sold themselves is a fair inference from various passages of Scripture.

In Leviticus xxv. 47, the case of the Israelite, who became the servant of the stranger, the words are, “If he SELL HIMSELF unto the stranger.”  The same word, and the same form of the word, which, in verse 47, is rendered sell himself, is in verse 39 of the same chapter, rendered be sold; in Deut. xxviii. 68, the same word is rendered “be sold.”  “And there ye shall BE SOLD unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women and NO MAN SHALL BUY YOU.”  How could they “be sold” without being bought?  Our translation makes it nonsense.  The word Makar rendered “be sold” is used here in the Hithpael conjugation, which is generally reflexive in its force, and, like the middle voice in Greek, represents what an individual does for himself, and should manifestly have been rendered, “ye shall offer yourselves for sale, and there shall be no purchaser.”  For a clue to Scripture usage on this point, see 1 Kings xxi. 20, 25—­“Thou hast sold thyself to work evil.”  “There was none like to Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness.”—­2 Kings xvii. 17.  “They used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil.”—­Isa. l. 1.  “For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves.”  Isa. lii. 3, “Ye have sold yourselves FOR NOUGHT, and ye shall be redeemed without money.”  See also, Jer. xxxiv. 14—­Romans vii. 14, vi. 16—­John viii. 34, and the case of Joseph and the Egyptians, already quoted.  In the purchase of wives, though spoken of rarely, it is generally stated that they were bought of third persons.  If servants were bought of third persons, it is strange that no instance of it is on record.

II.—­THE LEADING DESIGN OF THE LAWS RELATING TO SERVANTS, WITH THE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES SECURED TO THEM.