Thus, in that early and simple Hebrew civiliza- tion, slavery was free from half the terrors with which the later Roman civilization and the con- ditions of our modern life have invested it. It cannot be said that in the earlier pre-exilian days the lot of a Hebrew bond-slave among his countrymen was oppressive or even irksome. The description given by Donyhty of slaverj' in the remoter parts of Arabia corresponds in many par- ticulars with the conditions of the early Hebrew bond-servant (Arabia Deserta, i. p. 554) —
'The condition of the slave is always tolerable and is often happy in Arabia ; bred up as poor broLliers of the sons of the household, they are a manner of God's wards of the pioua Mohammedan householder who is ammij [properly *' my uncle "] of their sen'itude and a^I/(" my father"). ... It is not many years *' if their houselord fears Allah " before he will ^ve them their libert\' ; and then he sends them not away empty ; but in upland Arabia (where only substantial persons are slave-holders) the jjood man will marry out his free servants, male and female, endowing them with somewhat of his own substance, whether camels or palm-stems.'
We shall note the close par.illel between the latter part of this extract and the details of Hebrew usage prescribed in the Book of Deuteronomy.
A slave could attain to a high position in his master's household. He might even become his heir in default of off'sjiring (Gn 15-- '). The im- portant place filled by the slave Eliezer, though a foreigner (Damascene), in the household of Abra- ham, is not without parallels in the narratives of antiquity. The Hebrew captive Joseph becomes the prime-minister of Pharaoh. In 1 Ch 2** we read the interesting fact that Sheshan in default of male issue married one of his daughters to the Egyptian (?) slave Jarha'. In case of an emergency, the master of a household might seek counsel from his slave as from a trusted friend. Abigail has recourse to one of Nabal's slaves for advice in order to appea.se Darid's anger (1 S 25'*'-). A homely episode of this character occurs in the life of Saul (1 S 9'"'°, belonging to the older stratum of the narrative called by Budde G ; cf. Richttr u. Samuel, p. 169 ff.). Saul, in his baffled search for his father's lost asses, turns at length for counsel to his slave. The slave gives the right advice, and directs his master's steps to the seer Samuel. A
SERYAXT. SLAVE, SLAVERY
SERVANT, SLAVE, SLAVERY 463
fee is requisite for the consultation, and tlie slave lends his master a quarter of a shekel (about SJd.). Saul, in resjionse to his slave's advice, says, ' Your advice is good : come, let us go.' This vivid narra- tive reminds us of Gn 24 (J; according to Ball J^, but Kuenen regards it as J'), in which Abraham sends Eliezer on an important mission to secure a ■wife for his son, and exhibits in the clearest manner the conlidontiai relations which subsisted between the liead of a household or the sheikh of a clan and liis slave. Krom tlie above narrative respecting Saul, in which he borrows a siii.iU sum from his slave, we gather the significant hint that slaves mi::ht even be the owners of property.
The position of a slave in a household would largely depend on his origin, viz. whetlicr of He- brew or of foreign nation.-ility. In the latter case his .situation would certainly not be so favourable, unless indeed, as in the case of Eliezer, he had been born and bred in tlie household, and thus came to be incorporated in the clan to which he was locally attached, sharing in its hospitality and protection, and taking his due part in its sacra. The position of a recently purchased slave taken captive in war would be far diltcrent. In a Roman or Greek household he would be set to do the most menial tasksof drudgery; and liis jd.ace in a Hebrew family ■would be similar, though not so forlorn. The Canaanites, as we learn from Jg 1^- *•• **• **, were employed in hard task-work {cz). These lower employments are described in Dt 29" as gathering firewood and drawing water. The laws respecting warfare in Dt 20'"'''- prescribe th.at the inli.abitants of those cities which surrendered voluntarily to Israel should be taken as slaves, while in case of resistance the male inhabitants were to be slain with the sword, and the women and children with the cattle were to be taken as a prey (cf. Nu31"'-''"). In the time of David, through his numerous foreign wars, there came to be a large number of these foreign helots engaged in laborious task-work (ot). From 2 S 20'^ we gather that it became necessary to appoint an ollicer to superintend this special department of national life, viz. the ^3y op (On 49") or forced service exacted from the slave-labourer. This was probably true of the reign of David's successor Solomon (1 K 9-'), who did not find it necessary to exact any bund-service from Hebrews (save for the special work mentioned in S^i'^i"-), since tlie foreign slaves abundantly sufficed for all needs. Inileed, slaves of foreign origin were very numerous in the East, and this became especially true in the 9tli and following centuries. A.ssj-rian inscriptions and portrayals abundantly testify to the barb.irous practices that prevailed in ancient Asiatic warfare when cities were stormed and sacked. We know from numerous inscriptions tliat a large number of the i)risoners * were carried away cajitive. Many of these, of whom female cajitives constituted a considerable proportion, would inevitably find their way to foreign markets. The great mercantile Canannite or Phojnician peoples, who had their cele- brated emporia of commerce at Tyre and Sidon, shared with the I'liilistines the unenviable notoriety of being the chief slave-dealing race of antiquity. Thus in the middle of the 8th cent. Amos brings this accusation against the Philistines, who passed