Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him.
George Leo Haydock
Prophets. Josephus ([Antiquities?] ix. 4.) intimates that this man was Abdias; (3 Kings xviii. 13.) and the Rabbins pretend that Joram was the creditor. But these traditions are destitute of proof; and we know not that Abdias was a prophet. (Calmet) — Serve him, not as slaves, for the Hebrews were not thus to be sold, except they had commited some crime. (Salien, the year before Christ 913.) See Leviticus xxv. 39. — But the condition of mercenaries was perhaps little different; (Haydock) and we find that people were sold for debt, Exodus xxi. 7., and Isaias l. 1. The same practice seems to have continued till our Saviour’s time, Matthew xviii. 25. Children were regarded as part of a person’s property. The Romans, Athenians, and other nations, claimed the same right over them. (Halicar. ii. p. 96.; Plutarch, in Solon et Lucullus.) The custom of selling children continued for a long time in our [British] islands.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.