Bondage

BONDAGE (עֲבֹדָה, H6275, and derivatives, labor, service; LXX ἔργον, G2240, work; NT ἡ δουλεία, servitude, bondage, slavery, various forms of δουλεύω, G1526, to be a slave, δου̂λος, a slave, bondman). Used both in a literal and a fig. sense.

B. Bondage occurs in the fig. sense only in the NT and then mainly in the KJV. The RSV generally tr. it by “slave” or “slavery”—“bondman” (עֶ֫בֶד, H6269, δου̂λος); a male slave or servant (Deut 15:17); “bondmaid” (אָמָ֣ה; שִׁפְחָ֥ה; παιδίσκη, G4087). The KJV also used bondwoman. See also Slave, Slavery.

Bibliography

R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel (1961), 80-90; I. Mendelsohn, “Slavery in the OT,” IDB, IV (1962), 383-391.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

bon’-daj: Used in two senses in Scripture, a literal and a metaphorical sense.

(1) In the former sense it refers

(b) The word bondage (`abhadhim) is also used to describe the slavery into which the poor Jews were being forced by their more prosperous brethren in the earlier years under the Persians in Palestine (Ne 5:5). Here true personal, though temporary, slavery is meant.

See Slavery.