The law attempts to fix and ameliorate the position of day-labourers and slaves. "The hire of the labourer shall not remain with thee till the morrow."[422] The number of slaves appears to have been considerable. They were partly captives taken in war, and partly strangers purchased in the way of trade; partly Hebrews who, when detected in thieving, could not pay the compensation, or who could not pay their debts, or Hebrew daughters sold by their parents. The marriages of slaves increased their number. The law required that slaves should rest on the Sabbath day;[423] and even the oldest regulations restrict the right of the master over the life of his slave by laying down the rule that the slave shall be free if his master has inflicted a severe wound upon him, and that the master must be punished if he has slain his slave.[424] The slave who was a born Israelite might be ransomed by his kindred, if they could pay the sum required.[425] The Hebrew slave was treated by his master as a hired labourer, and hind.[426] When the Hebrew slave had served six years his master was compelled to set him free without ransom in the seventh year. A Hebrew could only remain in slavery for ever when, after six years of service, he voluntarily declared that he wished to remain with his master; then, as a sign that he permanently belonged to the house of his master, his ear was pierced on the door-post with an awl. FOOTNOTES: [368] Exod. xiii. 2; Numbers iii. 5-51; viii. 16. [369] Numbers xviii. 20-26. [370] Vol. i. 488, 502. [371] Numbers xviii. 8-20. [372] Levit. xxvii. 29-33. [373] Genesis xiv. 20; xxviii. 22. [374] Exod. xxx. 11-16; xxxviii. 25-28. [375] Levit. xxi. 16-21. [376] Levit. xxi. 5. [377] Exod. xx. 26. [378] Exod. xxviii. 31-35; xxxix. 22-27. [379] Exod. xxviii. 4-30, 36-43. [380] 1 Sam. xx. 5, 24, 27, and many passages in the prophets; Numbers xxviii. 11; xxix. 6; Ewald, "Alterthümer," s. 360. [381] Exod. xii. 15-19; Numbers ix. 13; xxviii. 16-24. [382] Levit. xxii. 9-21. [383] At the division of the kingdom Jeroboam is said to have changed this festival to the fifteenth day of the eighth month; 1 Kings xii. 33. [384] _E. g._ 1 Sam. i. 3; 1 Kings xii. 27-32. [385] Exod. xxiii. 13; xxxiv. 23. [386] Levit. xxiii. 29. [387] Levit. xvi., xxiii. 26-32. [388] Levit. xvii. 3-5. [389] Levit. i-vi. [390] Levit. vii. 23-34, and in other passages. [391] _Supr._ p. 183. Exod. xxx. 1-9. [392] Levit. vi. 12, 13; ix. 17. [393] Numbers xv. 38; Levit. xix. 19. [394] Levit. xi. 1-44. [395] Levit. xvii. 15. [396] Levit. xvii. 14. [397] Levit. xiii., xiv. [398] The spoils taken in war are also to be purified; Numbers xxxi. 20-24.