DEUT163 Israel's historical experience as slaves and strangers is used to inspire ethical treatment of the landless underclass of Israelites society. On the basis of their collective memory of slavery in the land of Egypt, they are exhorted to be generous to the indentured Israelite who is freed after six years (Deut 15:13-15). Israel is warned against oppressing the stranger, "for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Exod 22:20, 23:9). In Deuteronomy's version of the Decalogue, the rationale for the Sabbath rest is "so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in a land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there" [this verse]. God forbids Israelites to hold their brethren as slaves, because He released them from Egyptian bondage: therefore they are to be slaves to God alone (Lev 25:42, 55) (By Elaine Adler Goodfriend, “Ethical Theory and Practice in the Hebrew Bible)