Jeremiah 2:14

Is Israel a servant? is he a homebornslave?] An emphatic negative is the reply expected, as in Jeremiah 2:31. Israel is not a slave but a son. Why then is he spoiled? If (which is however doubtful) the early legislation, as given in Exodus 21:1-3, still held good, children born to a slave who married one of the slave girls in his master's house, remained the permanent property of their owner. The meaning here will be, Is Israel permanently subjected to each whim of a cruel master? Cp. the somewhat similar passages, Jeremiah 8:4; Jeremiah 14:19; and specially Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 49:1.