ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Lexicon

H1865 - deror

deror, derôr, dror, דְּרוֹר, H1865, H1865 - deror, proclaim liberty, year of liberty

Strong's: H1865 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: deh-ROR Part of speech: masculine noun ("liberty, release"); the same number also tags an adjective of flowing or pure myrrh OT occurrences: measured in the Strong's-tagged KJV (kjv.json): 8 tags in 7 verses. One of those (Exodus 30:23, "pure myrrh") is the spice sense; the other 7 tags in 6 verses are the "liberty" sense: Leviticus 25:10, Isaiah 61:1, Jeremiah 34:8, 15, 17 (twice), and Ezekiel 46:17.

Semantic range

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

  1. Liberty, release, freedom for persons and property. The ordinary sense in every occurrence outside Exodus 30:23. It is always the object of "proclaim" (qara', H7121) in the Leviticus, Isaiah and Jeremiah texts: deror is something announced publicly, by authority, for a whole population at once.
  2. "The year of liberty." At Ezekiel 46:17 the jubilee is simply called "the year of liberty": a gift of land to a servant reverts to the prince then.
  3. Free-flowing, pure (Exodus 30:23, "pure myrrh"). Strong's files it under the same number; nothing theological rides on it.

So the word is not a private manumission of one slave by one master. It is a proclaimed, general release that cancels arrangements people had entered, whether they liked it or not.

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Theological force

The jubilee proclamation

Leviticus 25:10: "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof ... and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." The release covers land and people together. The same chapter gives the reason an Israelite who sells himself for debt may not be treated as a bondman: "For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen" (25:42). Deror is the Exodus turned into a calendar. See Jubilee System.

Jeremiah 34: the release revoked, and God's answer

The richest passage is Jeremiah 34:8-17 (see Jeremiah 34:8-22).

  • King Zedekiah makes a covenant with the people of Jerusalem "to proclaim liberty (deror)" (34:8): every Hebrew manservant and maidservant to go "free" (chophshi, H2670, 34:9).
  • They do it, and then "they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return" (34:11).
  • God calls the release "right in my sight" (34:15) and the re-enslavement a profaning of His name (34:16).
  • The sentence turns the word back on them: "Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty ... behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine" (34:17). Two uses of deror in one verse: the liberty they withheld, and the "liberty" they receive, which is release into judgment.

For the slavery debate this is the key text. Scripture does not only permit release; it records a prophet condemning a society for reversing an emancipation, and it names that reversal as the sin that brings the exile.

Isaiah 61 and Luke 4

Isaiah 61:1: the anointed one is sent "to proclaim liberty (deror) to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus reads this passage and says it is fulfilled "this day in your ears" (Luke 4:18-21). Luke's Greek has aphesis (G0859 - aphesis) twice in 4:18 (measured in kjv.json: "deliverance to the captives" and "set at liberty them that are bruised"), and the passage ends with "the acceptable year of the Lord", jubilee language. The second aphesis phrase echoes Isaiah 58:6, "to let the oppressed go free." The Greek word that carries forgiveness of sins in the New Testament is, in this programmatic text, the Greek for deror.

Apologetic load

  1. "The Bible never commands anyone to free a slave." False on its face. Deror is a command to proclaim general release (Leviticus 25:10), and Jeremiah 34 shows a king obeying it and God approving (34:15). See Biblical Slavery Objection Defeater and Israelite Slavery Possession-vs-Ownership Defeater.
  2. "The Bible is indifferent to re-enslavement." Jeremiah 34:16-17 condemns exactly that and makes it grounds for national judgment. See Why Didnt God Ban Slavery Objection Defeater.
  3. The Christological reading of liberty. Jesus opens His public ministry by claiming the deror text of Isaiah 61 as His own. Spiritual release does not cancel the social meaning the word always had; it grounds it. The Exodus logic that Leviticus 25:42 states for Israel ("they are my servants ... not to be sold as bondmen") is the same logic Paul applies to every believer: "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23).
  4. Honest limit. The Leviticus release covers Israelites; the same chapter permits permanent bondmen from the nations (25:44-46). Deror is not a universal abolition statute, and a defense should not claim it is. What it shows is the direction of the law and the grounds it gives: God's ownership of persons redeemed from slavery.

Notable verses

See also

Lexicon

Concepts and defeaters