And so you find, when they sought to get rid of a yoke in the days of Ezekiel, it is written (in Ezek: 20:1): SOME {CHILDREN} [ELDERS] OF ISRAEL CAME TO CONSULT THE LORD. They said to him: Son of Adam, when a priest buys a slave, is it legal for him to eat the terumah?¹¹ He said to them: He may eat it. They said to him: If a priest returned and sold him to an ordinary Israelite, has he not left his jurisdiction? He told them: Yes. {He said to them:} [They said to him:] If we leave the jurisdiction of the Holy One, do we become like the peoples of the world? Ezekiel said to them (in Ezek. 20:32–33): BUT THAT WHICH YOU HAVE IN MIND SHALL NEVER COME TO PASS, THAT SHOULD YOU SAY: LET US BECOME LIKE THE GENTILES…. AS I LIVE, SAYS [THE LORD] GOD, SURELY I WILL REIGN OVER YOU [WITH A POWERFUL HAND, WITH AN OUTSTRETCHED ARM,] AND WITH WRATH POURED FORTH {AND WITH A POWERFUL ARM}. He said to them: As long as one has not sold a slave, he is in his jurisdiction; and you have not been sold for a price. It is so stated (in Is. 52:3): [FOR] THUS SAYS THE LORD: YOU WERE SOLD FOR FREE, AND YOU SHALL BE REDEEMED FOR NO MONEY.

footnotes: ¹¹ The priestly tithe on produce.