Endnote 4 – The Lowdown on the Riffraff

One might argue that the legal distinctions among Hebrew and non-Hebrew citizens were incorporated into the law codes at a later date in history, when settlement in Canaan brought the Israelites side by side with diverse ethnic groups in the Promised Land. This may well be the case for such classes as slaves, hired laborers, foreigners and “natives” (Hebrew, ’ezraµh.), but I believe these classes must be separated from the category of geµr because of its use in Egypt.