You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
⛓ Read Leviticus 25 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
The command that masters render what is 'just and equal' echoes the Holiness Code's restraint on slaveholders: 'You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God.' Both texts curb the master's power by invoking the fear of the divine Lord. The Jubilee slave legislation (Lev 25) is the most concrete OT availability for an ethic of fair treatment tied to God's overlordship.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Masters told to 'give up threatening' (6:9) coheres with the Holiness Code's prohibition on ruling over a fellow Israelite 'with harshness/rigor,' grounded likewise in fear of God. The ethical shape matches but no verbal quotation occurs, so a faint echo.
Low confidence