"'"x^ilrel; another interesting word employed
mere in nuuuuci .••~- o .
in Hebrew to express slave-concubine,
(SjVs). No satisfactory Semitic etymology can
•See art. MiRRUOK. vol. iii. P- ^'O"- ""4^ 'Dowry.' .nd -h. 21 E preJen the UOe .niJN tor Hagar.
be found for the word, and its form strongly suggests a tJreek origin .aXXa.Is (-f,^^««- «*; I^\'|>", neflex) The Greek race was called ]V. by tl e ^nc ent Semites. It is found in the Race-table Gn W-* (P) and in the Assyr. inscriptions of Sar-on and in the Tel cl-Amama tablets. See art J "van. The tern, therefore originally meant ^foretgn slave-concubine (cf. Is 2- and tootnote above p 463). The references Gn So'', JR !»• " S 15'« ''O" seem to suggest that the piUegesh was of a lower class and lax in morals.
7 Price of Slaves.— According to the Book ot the Covenant (Ex 2P») this was 30 shekels, or about £45", which was evident^ly the average price in the p^e-exilian period. The money-value woJd of course vary with the slave's age and ;Crcal condition. Jo^«P'^'\^«t'iren were con^ tent with 20 shekels when he ^vas soW to the Midianite (Ishmael.te) traders (Gn 37 ). Ihis was due to his youth According to the vost exilian Jexvish legislation (Lv 2, >• Z*^ «^[^'
shekels (nearly £3) w^ ^^'^'T/oO tears old redemption of slaves between 5 and .20 years ow. We find the same price (J nmneh) paid for a slave from Suri mentioned in a very early .contr.act- tablet of Babylonia.* The ordinary price how- ever for an kdult slave prevading in \\ e.stem AsTa d^ng several centuries was that stated in Ex 21»^vil 30 shekels. This, accordmg to the most probable computation of the money -value of a/,<.m.rand a lethech, .v^ ^'^J^'se^e Nowack
n^^^^St'^^diSnerv^z.-'^fdrSr in EOT},f ^i'^„l^Vac8»'^» we read that Nicanor Lttenipfed to detay the Roman tribute of 2000 ta ents bv the sale of Jews at the rate of 90 per
i"or^%reLrot'fd ^as sold by His traitor-
Ionia we find like sums and even lower paid for a slave The values also range in special cases much h "her. Thus in the time of Nebuchadnezzar we hear" f a woman. Sakinna, and her daughter r littte girl of 3 years of age, being sold for 3o shekels fOT nearly £5]. In another case a husband and his wife fetch 55 shekels [or about £7 10s ] fsavcef Mr. Pinches has transcribed a contract- tabLt in which a slave is sold for 2§ manehs of sth4r ormore than £22;! while, accordmg to T elP a slave might even cost as much as i05.§ 7nbothtleIelTst instances the slave must have leen particutarly valuable, probably owing to hiB possession of skilled qualihcations
8 Si'BSFouENT History of Slavery from the n»Y^ OF JFREMIAH.-In .Ter 34«- we read of the unsuccessful attempt which was made in the re.gn nf 7p,lekiah to carry out the provisions of the ^DU^r^mmiic'^code feting the seventh ^ear of release the ph lanthropic efforts ol tne Kin„ bein- thwarted ly the avarice of the owners. On the other hand. Nehemiahs strenuous endeavours n the "'ears that followed the return from ex le "ere crowned with better success. Acting m U.e
fe^-^irn:^H^fr:^"^^|
to pay the royal tribute upon our fields and our
• Schrader. Klli iv. p. 44 (iU.^ ( Jos. Ant. xu. ii. 3. J nrtiraica, vui. p. 13*";„ I Bab.-AwyT. Qach. p. 607.
SERVANT, SLAVE, SLAVERY
SERVANT, SLAVE, SLAVERY 46i
vineyards . . . and, lo ! we reduce onr sons and our daugliters to slavery, and it is not in our power to help it ; for otlier men have onr lieUls and our vineyards' (Neh 5'""). Nelieniiah's request, that the fields, vineyards, oliveyards, and houses sliould be restored, was complied with. Doubtless in later times there was full scope for the operation o. this injunction to redeem the Israelite slave from bondage to a foreign master, for we read that in the wars of the Ptolemies and the Seleuoidre large numhers of Jewish captives were taken (1 Mac 3*', 2 .Mac 8").
It would be an interesting object of investigation to endeavour to determine how far the philan- thropic tendencies of Nehemiah and of the post- exilian legislation were influenced by the humane civilization of Babylonia. That that civilization was humane is clearly attested in the OT. Jere- miah's advice to the Jewish captives in Babylonia, 'Build ye houses, and dwell in them ; plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them ; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters' . . . (Jer 29'- *), would have been impracticable under any other than an enlightened and humane polity. And the fact that large numbers of Jewish residents preferred to remain in the land of exile instead of availing themselves of the edict of Cyrus to return to their own land, is a significant hint in the same direc- tion. Babylonia, as Sayce has pointed out, was a land where agricultural pursuits were carried on, as in Egypt, by industrious, peace-loving freedmen (not by slaves, as in Assyria, where the pursuits preferred by the conquering race were trade and war). In manj- instances we learn from the clay documents of purchase or sale that mother and child were sold together. Indeed, rights were accorded to women in possessing projiertj' superior to those of their Hebrew sisters m pre-exilian Canaan. ' The ancient Accadian law ordered, that if children had been bom to slaves whom the former owner bad sold while still keeping a claim upon them, he should, in buying them back, take the children a.s well at the rate of IJ shekels each ' (Sayce, Horial Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians, p. 79).