Do Not Return a Slave Who Fled to Israel
Refuge as Covenant Obligation
Deuteronomy 23:16–17: “You shall not deliver to his master the servant which has escaped from his master to you: He shall dwell with you, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of your gates, where it likes him best: you shall not oppress him.” The structure is positive and negative together: not only must Israel not return the escaped slave, Israel must protect and resettle him. “He shall dwell with you… where it likes him best” gives the escaped slave unprecedented freedom of choice. He is not assigned to a restricted zone; he chooses his own community among the Israelite gates.
The Hebrew “yinnatzel eilekha” — “who has escaped to you” — implies that the act of coming to Israel is itself a seeking of refuge. The Torah treats the act of flight to Israel as implicitly making a claim on Israel's protection. To return such a person to their master would not be a neutral act of extradition but a violation of the refuge that Israel is obligated to extend.
Memory as Policy — Egypt and the Ethics of Refuge
Deuteronomy 15:15: “And you shall remember that you were a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you.” This verse appears in the context of releasing Hebrew slaves in the seventh year — but the logic applies equally to commandment #599. Israel's own experience of slavery and redemption creates an obligation to be different from the Egypt that oppressed them. A nation that will return escaped slaves to their masters has forgotten what it was to be enslaved and what it meant to be delivered.
Exodus 22:21: “You shall neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The class of people protected by Israel's covenant obligations — the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the escaped slave — forms a consistent group: those without natural protection in the social structure. Israel's covenant creates a community defined partly by its obligation to those who lack advocates. The escaped slave, by reaching Israel, gains the entire covenantal community as advocate.
The Dred Scott Decision — Inversion of This Commandment
The contrast between Deuteronomy 23:16 and American history's Fugitive Slave Acts reveals the commandment's radical dimension. Where the Torah's law made reaching Israel a sufficient condition for freedom and protection, American fugitive slave legislation made reaching a free state a condition for extradition and return. The Dred Scott decision (1857) held that a slave remained property regardless of where he traveled. The Torah's commandment moves in precisely the opposite direction: the act of escape to Israel changes the person's status — Israel may not treat them as still-owned property to be returned.
Abolitionist leaders cited Deuteronomy 23:16–17 as biblical grounds for the obligation to harbor escaped slaves and refuse to participate in their return. The verse was read as establishing a universal principle: a community committed to covenant values cannot be an instrument of slavery for those who seek its protection. The prohibition of commandment #599 has the effect of making Israel an abolitionist sanctuary by definition.
- The Free Settlement Provision — Deuteronomy 23:17: “he shall dwell with you… in the place which he shall choose… where it likes him best.” The escaped slave receives freedom of settlement that many free people did not have. The Torah does not assign the refugee to a designated area; he chooses his own community.
- The Exodus Memory — Deuteronomy 15:15: “you were a bondsman in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you.” The repeated invocation of the Exodus as the basis for humanitarian law creates the obligation: a redeemed people cannot be instruments of bondage for those who seek their protection.
- The No-Oppression Clause — Deuteronomy 23:17: “you shall not oppress him.” Not only must Israel not return the escaped slave; Israel must not exploit or mistreat them while in their midst. Protection is not merely non-extradition but active non-oppression.
Read the source passage in the Torah reader.
Read in the Torah Reader — Deuteronomy 23:16