This pasuk refers to the mitzvah of freeing Jewish slaves at the beginning of Yovel. The Torah, however, does not seem to address only the slaves. The enjoinment quite clearly speaks about all inhabitants. The vast majority of Jews were not slaves! The Pnei Yehoshua suggests the following idea. One who enslaves others is himself a slave. He is subservient to his own egotistical desire to dominate others. This is alluded to by the statement in the Talmud Kiddushin 20a, “One who purchases a Jewish slave in reality acquires a master for himself.” He who enslaves others, becomes enslaved himself….
