Digest of Biblical Civil Law

Household slavery does not imply a small family setting. Abraham had 318 homeborn adopted sons who were trained for war (Gen. 14:14). There is no telling how many regular slaves he had. His household doubtless numbered in the thousands. Thus, indentured servitude to a large business easily corresponds to Biblical household slavery. Once a man had paid off his debt, he might choose to remain with the company as an employee, a situation analogous to adoption.

- James Jordan, The Law of the Covenant 92 (1984), at http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/:  HTML, DjVu.