Exodus 9:3-6

3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel.

5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.

6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.

Then, God sends a plague of boils that afflicts all the Egyptians and their cattle. Where is this cattle? Aren’t the cattle already dead?

Exodus 9:9-11

9And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

Then, God sends hail so that all that remains in the fields, including the crops and the cattle, will die. Where is this cattle?

Exodus 9:19-25

19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.

20 He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:

21 And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.

22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.

23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

In Exodus 12, God has all the first-born Egyptians killed, including the first born cattle. Where is all this cattle?

Exodus 12:12

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

In Exodus 14, Ramses lets the Israelites go, but then changes his mind and pursues them on horseback.

Exodus 14:9

9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.

If all of the animals are already dead, the horses should be dead as well.

Numbers 31:40

40 And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the LORD’s tribute was thirty and two persons.

In Numbers 31, God has Moses destroy an entire city, steal all the loot, burn the city to the ground, and keep all the virgin girls for themselves. At the end of this, God demands that a portion of the spoils be sacrificed to him. This includes the virgin girls that they kept alive.

Of the 16,000 virgins that they spared, God demands that thirty-two be sacrificed to him. Let it never be said that only heathens perform human sacrifice. God seems to have no problem with having people slain in his name, ritually or otherwise. This is not something that a good god would demand.

Numbers 31:17-18

17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

This is a simple story laid out in Numbers 31. God commands Moses to gather an army and destroy the Midianites. He gathers 12,000 men to destroy this city. They kill every man, take everything of value, and burn their homes to the ground. They take the women, children, and goods to Moses. Then, he tells them to kill all but the virgin girls, which they were to keep for themselves.

While God does not specifically command that Moses take the virgin girls, he does condone it. He demands that a portion of the spoils, including the virgins be sacrificed to him. Is this something that a good god would demand? Is this something that a good god would even allow to happen?

Moses, under the command of God, destroys an entire city, kills all but the virgin girls, sacrifices a portion of them to God, then allows all others to be divided up amongst the Israelites. God and Moses obviously have no respect for human life and even less respect for women.

Leviticus 25:44-46

44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.

In Leviticus 25, God says that it is perfectly acceptable to buy, own, and inherit slaves as long as they are not children of Israel. While it can be argued that these were different times and that slavery wasn’t very bad back then, the authors of the King James Bible did indeed know that there were bad enough conditions to warrant such rules as “Don’t beat your slaves so hard that they die within a few days.”

It has also been suggested that the slavery mentioned in the King James Bible is not permanent slavery but voluntary indentured servitude. It is even true to say that most Biblical law refers to this form of slavery. However, the indentured servitude of the King James Bible specifically refers to the Israelite slaves. When an Israelite is owned as a slave, they are slaves for six years and are let free in the seventh. Additionally, they often enter into slavery on their own, often due to poverty. However, while the Israelite slaves were afforded the privilege of freedom after six years, this same right was not extended to slaves who are not Israelites.

While it may be true that most of the references to slavery address the voluntary form of slavery, this passage does not. This is referring to the permanent form of slavery characterized by people who aren’t from Israel. This is made obvious when it says that you may own slaves from the heathen about you, not Israelites, and is further exemplified by the statement They shall be your bondmen for ever.

It has been mentioned that the three verses immediately following this passage suggest that your slaves may become rich and be redeemed. Upon reading it in context with all of Leviticus 25, we see that the verses are speaking of non-Israelites who are not slaves becoming rich while a fellow Israelite becomes poor and then sells himself to the non-Israelite. It is suggested that the Israelite slave should be purchased by Israelites so that they can be set free after a certain number of years. In no way do these verses suggest that slaves can become rich while owned by their masters, nor that the non-Israelite slaves will ever be set free.

Even if you still maintain that the form of slavery practiced at the time was not very bad, no matter what the conditions of their servitude were, slaves were still slaves. Modern morality understands human freedom to be of very high value and that it is absolutely immoral for one human being to own another. However, this concept was apparently absent from the mind of God, as he inspired this one.

Upon reading the entire chapter, it appears as if the passage is intended to be the literal word of God as it is spoken to Moses. God additionally suggests that he purchased the Israelites by freeing them from Egypt, in Leviticus 25:55. Apparently, God freed his people only to place them in another pair of shackles.