You shall not deliver to his master the servant which is escaped from his master to you:
You shall not deliver to his master the servant which is escaped from his master to you:
Thou shalt not deliver unto his master a servant that is escaped from his master unto thee:
Do not give back to his master a servant who has gone in flight from his master and come to you:
Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant who hath escaped from his master to thee:
You shall not deliver to his master a servant who is escaped from his master to you:
Thou shalt not deliver unto his master a servant which is escaped from his master unto thee:
Thou shalt not deliver - the servant which is escaped - unto thee - That is, a servant who left an idolatrous master that he might join himself to God and to his people. In any other case, it would have been injustice to have harboured the runaway.
The case in question is that of a slave who fled from a pagan master to the holy land. It is of course assumed that the refugee was not flying from justice, but only from the tyranny of his lord.
23:15 The servant - Of such as belonged to the Canaanites, or other neighbouring nations, because if he had lived in remote countries, it is not probable that he would flee so far to avoid his master, or that his master would follow him so far to recover him. For the Canaanites this sentence was most just, because both they and theirs were all forfeited to God and Israel, and whatsoever they enjoyed was by special indulgence.And for the other neighbours it may seem just also, because both masters and servants of these and other nations are unquestionably at the disposal of the Lord their maker and sovereign ruler. Understand it likewise of such as upon enquiry appear to have been unjustly oppressed by their masters.Now it is not strange if the great God, who hates all tyranny, and styles himself the refuge of the oppressed doth interpose his authority to rescue such persons from their cruel masters.