The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-11-10

aud to love the name of the Lord to be his ser
wants every one that keepeth the Sabbath
from polluting it, and taketh hold of my COW
ernant."-lvi, g. So we see that resident for
eigners were not necessarily heather.
And they shall be your possession" This
is not a very perspcuous expression; but much
} light il thrown upon it by prediction of
, lsaiah's respecting the return of the Jews from
, Babylon: THE Lord will have mercy on
, Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and get them
, in their own land, and the strangers shall be
joined with them, and they shall cleave to the
b house of Jacob. And tho people shall take
Q them and bring them to their place and the
house Of Israel shall possess them in the land
Of the Lord for servants and landmarks; and
!, they shall take them captives, whose captiyes
a they were and they shall rule over their OPP
pressOrs." -yiv |, g.
0 The obvious meaning Of this prophecy is,
: that some Of the Babylonians would embrace
: Judaism, and, cleaving to the house of Jacob,
d accompany it on its return TO Palestine. There,
in the course of Providence, portion of them,
I waxing poor would sell Themselves for servants /;
a and thus, by sort of poetical retribution, the
= Jews would take captive the Babylonians whose
captvcs they had been and would rule over
r their oppressors. OF course, these former op-
pressors of the Jews were not slaves but free
= men, and had now become voluntary captives
Y or servants Now the prophet tells us that
the house Of Israel shall possess these converted
{ BabylOnianB. I'm what sense could these con-
verts be possession Ii will scarcely be pre-
tended that these people, having abjured idol
airy, and from their belief in the true God
having exiled themselves from their native
country, t. accompany the Jews to the Holy
Land, were on their arrival TO be kidnapped by
Gods people, and converted like American
slaves into beasts of burden and that this act
of atrociOus wckedness was predicted by tho
prophet, as portion of that mercy which the
Lord had in store for Jacob In no possible
sense could the house of Israel be said to pos
Sess these Babylonsh prOselytes, but as using
and enjoying their services, not az chattels but
as voluntary servants In this same sense be
yOnd all doubt is it said by Moses of the SER
wants obtained from the adjacent nations, and
of the resident foreigners in Judea, and their
descendants "they shall DO your possession"
And ye shall take them as an inheritance
for your children after you, to inherit for
possession; they shall be your bondmen for
ever"
The word take" here has such an affinity !
to seize as greatly to strengthen the pro-slavery
construction which the translators have given
to this passage. Yet Isaiah uses the same term
III regard to the Babylonsh converts " The .
people shall take them the cOnverts) and bring
them to their Place." viz: jerusalem Surely,
the captive Jews, permitted az favor by CYRUS
to return to their own land did not seize upon
and torclbly abduct portion of the kings
subjects, carrying them off as a possession to
Palestine and these subjects too, their own
best friends, and converts to their religion
la neither passage does the word "take"
imply force, but, on the contrary, an acquies.
cence in voluntary act The converts cleaved
to the house Of Jacob, and the Jews instead of
driving them away, were to accede to their
wishes, and take them to Palestine. SO these
foreign servants, wishing to serve, were to be
taken, or employed What the Jewish parents
did their children were to do after them. In
heritance is the transmission of the rights or
the property Of the father to tho children.
Here it does and can mean nothing more than
the transmission Of the privilege of using for
cign and resident proselytes as servants; and,
az we have seen, this Inheritance was contin-
ued even after the captivity. An inheritance,
convenient, indeed, to the Jew, but more
precious and merctul, az we shall see, to the
poor stranger, who, casting away his idols,
made the Lord his God and, forsaking his hea-
then kindred Joined himself to the worship
pcrs of jehovah and cleaved to the house of
Jacob.
"They shall be your bondmen forever" The
preconcevcd opinions of the transatOrs tempt
cd them to give such color to this sentence as
best accorded with their pro slavery theory.
Hence this strong expression in the text, while
in the margin the literal translation is honest
ly given. eye shall serve yourselves with them
forever" Not word about bondmen, but
merely an unlimited permission, as to time, to
usc or employ foreigners or strangers.
Such is that famous law, in Levitcus, about
heather bondmen, which multitudes claim as
giving the sanction Of o Just and holy God to
the horrible principle of human chattelhood,
and to oil the denominations which necessarily
spring from that principle And yet this same
law, Invested Of the CLOSES of the transators
and examined in the light thrown upon it by
the voluntary sales OF individuals by them
selves mentioned in the very same chapter,
loses its ar of mysterious antagonism to the
whole spirit of the Mosaic code Strike out all
the pro-slavery terms which the translators,
without authority from the original, have scat.
tered through the passage, and its plain and |
obvious meaning il this: You may buy of |
themselves, for servants, men and women who |
are natives of the adjoining countries just rs
you have already been authorized to buy your
own cOuntrymen for servants. You may also
buy, for servants, strangers residing among you
and their defendants; and your children after
you may do tho same. You may always en-.
ploy them M servants"
The term of service of these foreign servants,
together with their rights and privileges, rs
will subsequently appear were 10 all respects
the same as those of Hebrew servants.
"The strangers sojourning among you," so
often mentioned, and respecting whom 30 many
laws are given, were foreigners residing in
Judea OF course, every foreigner entering
Judea for the purpose Of residng-no matter
in what capacity, whether rs On artisan or
servant-was instantly embraced in this class
and became Immediately subject to the restric
tions and entitled to the privileges provided by
law for strangers in Israel"
Enough has already been shown to satisfy
any disinterestcd, unprejudced person that
these foreign servants could not have been
slaves But as the passage in Leviticus which
we have quoted is the rock of defence and the
strong tower of the advocates of Slavery, it may
be we'll to examine in what light merciful
God regarded the strangers sojourning with
his people, many of whom it is commended, he
commanded should DO held and treated as ar
| ticles of merchandise.
OF STRANGERS IN ISRAEL.
The jewish was of all religions, the most ex-
elusive, utterly abhorring the intercommunity
of gods common to Paganism.
"The Lord no is God there is mono else,n
WAS the fundamental and pcrvading principle
of Judaism Of this principle there could be
no compromise. The acknowledgment of any
other God than Jehovah was crime, to be ex.
plated only by death. As mentioned in pas
sage heretofore quoted, the dolator was to be
: put to death, even by the hand Of father, n
husband, or brother. Tho indignation of
: the law against idolatry extended even to in
: sensible objects and irrational animals A city
: fallen into idolatry was TO be annibilated
| | Than oh al snraly S,,;to tho h. -