SERUG (y^, lepofrx)- — Son of Eeu and father of Nabor, Gn U^-'---^, Lk 3^. Etlinologically the name is tliat of Saruj, a district and citj' north of I,laran (see Dilhu. Gen. adloc. and the authorities quoted there).
SERVANT, SLAYE, SLAVERY.—
1. The hired servant. U. The slave.
1. Kame and meaning.
2. Orijjin of slavery.
8. Slavery and ancient civilization.
4. Slavery in ancient pre-exilian Israel.
6. Legislation respecting slaves : (A) pre-exilian, (B)
post -exilian, (C) compensation for injury to
slaves, (D) runaway slaves.
6. Status of female slaves.
7. Price of slaves.
8. History of slavery from Jeremis>b onwirds.
9. Christian attitude to slavery.
10. Religious use of the term * slave ' 0 servant *). Literature.
i. Hired Servant. — The word employed in Hebrew for a servant wlio worked for hire, a hired servant, is v;v', a term also employed in Jer 46^' for a mercenaiy soldier. Sucli a hired servant was, however, free to render such service or not aa ho pleased. There was no constraint over his activity except for the stipulated time and mode of it, for whicli payment or wages ("i;;") was received. It is verj' ditUcult to determine what place the hired servant or worknuin tilled in the earlier period of Israel's pre-exilian history. There are no regula- liona about him in the primitive compend of laws called the Book of the Covenant (Kx 21-23). The wild followers whom Abimeluch hired (Jg 9*) scarcely come under this category, and the same remark applies to the priest hired by Micah (.Ig 18^). I!ut it is otherwise when we come to the more developed code of the Book of Deuteronomy, w liich reflects a more advanced state of civilization. There we lind distinct provision made that the hired xervant is to be paid regularly everj' evening (Dt 24") l)efore sunset, and this rule is made to ajiply to both Hebrew and foreign lal)ourer alike. In tlie post -exilian legi.shition contained in the Book of Leviticus (19") this instruction is main- tained in full force. In fact, in post-exilian times an ell'ort becomes clearly apparent in legislation to make the lot of the slave approximate to that of the hired servant (Lv 25'"). In the post-exilian literature the references to the hired servant are not infrequent. See the Lexicons, s. t:;". The (Jrcek
equivalent is /ilaSios, luaduirbi. The former is the term employed in Lk lo"-'". The diflcicnce be- tween the relation of the -\'y^ or hired servant to the Hebrew household and that of the slave (i?i;), or of the stranger or resident alien (ij), was that the relation of the hired servant was looser ; see Family.
ii. SlaTB.— L Name and Meaning.— The ordi- nary Hcb. equivalent of ' servant ' was the word which properly desijjnates slave, iji', ebcd, a word common to all Semitic languages, includin-; Sabcean. It is, however, seldom found in Assyro-lijibylonian, in which the equivalent more frequently used is ardu. The Gr. equivalent is SovXos (also eipdwuv, jrafs, otKir-rjs). The word ^5l; is as common in Phoenician as in Hebrew, and enters into Phccn. proper names (compounded with the name of deity precisely as in Heb.). See Bloch, Phonicisches Glossar, pp. 47, 48, both pages being entirely lilled with examples. The Tel el-Amarua tablets give us further evidence of Canaanite names of the 15th cent. (circ. ), viz. 'Abd-Addi,'Abd-Uras,'Abd-'Asirta, "Abd-Milki, etc. For similar names compounded with 'Abd (fem. Amat) in Arabic, see Wellhausen, lieste', pp. 2-4. The verbal root of the substantive i3y connotes fundamentally the idea of working. In primitive life this meant chielly the tilling of the soil (Gn 2' 3=^ 4^, 2 S Q"). Then it came to be specially associated with the conception of working for (Heb. ^) another. Accordingly, the subst. nj;; is based on this special meaning, and therefore signifies one who labours for another and remains permanently subject to this relationship.
This is, in fact, the cardinal distinction between a free man whoso activity is not restricted by any compulsion to serve the interests of another, and the slave whose activity is so restricted.
2. Origin of Slavery.— Slavery was probably a necessary element in all ancient industrial life. Slavery arises from two main causes, viz. Want and War. Privation and famine compel a man, a family, or a clan to accept terms of service and maintenance from others to which under normal conditions they would never submit. War, a yet more potent cause, brings in its train foreign captives who are forced to enter a lot of subjection to the will of their conquerors. War, moreover, carries in its track desolation of house and home and of all means of subsistence. Whole populations are rendered des- titute, and Jlee for protection and maintenance to some friendly but alien race, and thus voluntarily enter into the position of bond-slaves as a refuge from famine and death. 'The greatest of all divi- sions,' says Tylor,* 'that between freeman and slave, appears aa soon as the barbaric warrior spares the life of his enemy when he has him down, and brings him home to drudge for him and till the soil. How low in civilization this begins ai)pear8 by a slave-caste forbidden to bear arms forming part of several of the lower American tribes.' We shall presently see how this condition of slavery belonged to the old - world life of ancient Heb. society, where the male and female slave rank next above the ox and the ass. The terms used for both were sometimes closely similar, and indicated that they were regarded a.3 pronrrtt/ that had been acquired. The oxen were called by the Hebrew his nji;5, his acquired proiierty or possessions (Lat. pcculium, Gr. rr^i-os). I'he slave, on the other hand, was his purchased possession or hd^ njp'; (Gn 1712. 13. a Kx 12" 2P">). Tylor (i6.) thinks that the hired labourer arose out of the more ancient slave, the hired servant out of the ancient servus. 'The master at first let out his slaves to work for his prollt, and then free men found it to their advantage to work for their own profit, so that there grew np the great wage-earning doss.' Tho