The Israelites were not to exploit one another ( Leviticus 25:35-38). Specifically they were not to charge one another interest on loans ( Leviticus 25:37; cf. Exodus 22:25; Deuteronomy 23:19-20). This policy would have helped a poor farmer to buy enough seed for the next year. This law was evidently unique among the ancient Near Eastern nations, though not among smaller tribal groups. [1][source]
When poor Israelites sold themselves as servants to wealthier Israelites, their masters were to treat them as brothers and not as slaves ( Leviticus 25:39-43). [source][source][source]
". . . the original law in the Book of the Covenant [2] had to do with the "Hebrew" in the social, not ethnic sense, i.e, with the landless man who survived by selling his services to an Israelite household. Leviticus 25:39 ff, by contrast, deals with the man who is an Israelite landholder but who has been forced by poverty to mortgage it and then to sell his family and himself into the service of a fellow-Israelite." [3][source]
God permitted the Israelites to own slaves from other nations ( Leviticus 25:44-46). That they were not to mistreat them goes without saying. Slavery in itself, as the Mosaic Law regulated it, did not violate basic human rights, but the abuse of slaves did. [source][source][source]
"In the first place, for one people or person to enslave another Isaiah , by that very Acts , to claim the other as one"s own; it is in a fundamental sense to claim another"s life as belonging to oneself. Such a claim, however, flies in the face of the biblical story that we have heard thus far. If the creation narratives of Genesis tell us anything, they tell us that the sovereign source and lord of life is God-and God alone. It is in just that sense that to God-and God alone-all life, "the work of his hands," ultimately rightly belongs. Therefore, from the standpoint of these biblical narratives, anyone besides God laying such ultimate claims to another"s life would in effect be arrogating to oneself another"s prerogatives. In essence, such a one would be making the most presumptuous claim any human being could make-the claim to be God." [4][source]
Israelites could also buy back (redeem) their countrymen who had sold themselves as slaves to non-Israelites who were living in the land ( Leviticus 25:47-55). An Israelite slave could also buy his own freedom. In these cases the Israelites were to calculate the cost of redemption in view of the approaching year of jubilee when all slaves in the land went free anyway. [source][source][source]
"The jubilee release does not apply to foreign slaves ( Leviticus 25:44-46). A theological reason underlies this discrimination: God redeemed his people from Egyptian slavery, to become his slaves ( Leviticus 25:42; Leviticus 25:55). It is unfitting, therefore, that an Israelite should be resold into slavery, especially to a foreigner (cf. Romans 6:15-22; Galatians 4:8-9; Galatians 5:1). The jubilee law is thus a guarantee that no Israelite will be reduced to that status again, and it is a celebration of the great redemption when God brought Israel out of Egypt, so that he might be their God and they should be his people ( Leviticus 25:38; Leviticus 25:42; Leviticus 25:55; cf. Exodus 19:4-6)." [5][source]
The provision of redemption by a kinsman ( Leviticus 25:47-55) is a very important legal point in the Book of Ruth (cf. also Jeremiah 32:7-15). Boaz fulfilled the responsibility of a kinsman redeemer by buying Mahlon"s land for Ruth. Furthermore he fulfilled the duty of a levir by marrying Ruth. [6][source]
The system of land ownership in Israel prevented complete capitalism or complete socialism economically. There was a balance of state (theocratic) ownership and private ownership. [source][source][source]
We who live under the New Covenant also have a promise from God that if we put His will first He will provide for our physical needs ( Matthew 6:25-33). [7][source]
"The acceptance of God"s sovereignty over his people and all their possessions leads to the magnanimous and compassionate treatment of the poor and the destitute, because at the end of the age everyone will be released from bondage." [4]0 [source]