Leviticus 25:40
But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
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 {q} 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 {r}, 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 {s}.
{q} Maimon. in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 2.
{r} Ibid.
{s} Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 3.