John Gill Commentary Leviticus 25:40

"As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee:" — Leviticus 25:40 (ASV)

[But] as an hired servant Who is hired by the day, or month, or year; and, when his time is up, receives his wages and goes where he pleases, and while a servant is not under such despotic power and government as a slave is:

[and] as a sojourner ; an inmate, one that dwells in part of a man's house, or boards and lodges with him, and whom he treats in a kind and familiar manner, rather like one of his own family than otherwise:

he shall be with thee ; as under the above characters, and used as such: this the Jews refer to food and drink, and other things, as they do, (Deuteronomy 15:16) ; and say ^F17 that a master might not eat fine bread, and his servant bread of bran; nor drink old wine, and his servant new; nor sleep on soft pillows and bedding, and his servant on straw: hence, they say ^F18 , he that gets himself an Hebrew servant is as if he got himself a master:

[and] shall serve thee unto the year of the jubilee ; and no longer; for if the year of jubilee came before the six years were expired for which he sold himself, the jubilee set him free, as Jarchi observes; nay, if be sold himself for ten or twenty years, and that but one year before the jubilee, it set him free, as Maimonides says ^F19 .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Maimon. in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 2.
• F18: Ibid.
• F19: Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 3.