No it is 100% chattel slavery. First Hebrew slaves had some rights, like don't be too harsh to them and if you beat them with a rod and they don't die then that's ok. SO the conditions were not great.
Non-Hebrew slaves were full on slaves.
But even Hebrew slaves could be tricked into being permanent slaves. If the master got the slave a wife and they had children when the term in 7 years was up the wife and children were the property of the master. Unless the slave re-joined forever.
Exodus 21 2-6
2If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. 3If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. 5But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,' 6then his master shall bring him to
God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.
Non-Hebrew slaves
Leviticus 25:44-46 suggests how Israelites can utilize the full human resources of slaves:
44As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. 45Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. 46You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.
There is clearly no way out for these slaves: they were truly slaves for life. And not just for the life of their owner. They were "property" and would be inherited along with the rest of their deceased owner's possessions.
Hereditary Slaves[edit]
The children of slaves were born into slavery.
Exodus 21:4d
If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.
Abduction and the slave trade
Hebrews were not allowed to abduct fellow Hebrews and sell them.
Exodus 21:16
16He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.
Given that the Hebrews were instructed in
Leviticus 25:44 to obtain their slaves from the people around them, it is evident that this injunction to not abduct people referred to Hebrews and not non-Hebrews. Obtaining and selling non-Hebrews was evidently not a problem.
Deuteronomy 24:7 specifies that only the abduction of Hebrews to enslave them is a crime.
So clearly non-Hebrew slaves were chattel slavery. Slaves for life, as are their children, no comments about don't be harsh or don't beat them to death. What led you to believe they rejected it?
