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There are several questions I have. How much debt did one need to accrue before one had to pay through being a servant/slave? Since a thief had to pay back several times the value of the theft (apparently God can demand above and beyond restitution), then how did that apply to standard debt? What was the threshold on treatment when it then became mistreatment? Finally, if these standards were applied today would this result in a more moral society?

I don't want to go all anti-TWI on people, but this whole having to resort to looking through commentaries to get the deeper or perhaps the more correct meaning is (IMO) ridiculous. The Bible is written by believers for believers. There is no hidden "truth" that somehow explains the higher moral/greater good aspect of these social constructs. It can be assumed, because they come from "God" and the premise is that all that comes from "God" is "good", that doing all these things to one another is morally good in the sight of God. That means that slavery, stoning for offenses, and all this stuff was a natural, everyday this-is-how-it-is sort of thing. People obviously do not believe this now. The bigger question is WHY? Why was one more holy then who stoned their kids to death over mouthing off to a parent? And why is it not the case now? What changed? It wasn't God. You do get that Jesus, had Mary's family actually followed the law, should have never been born!

I get that you are arguing about how things were, but I think the more important thing to address was WHY. Why were these particular social constructs put into place? Who, exactly, is responsible for the whole idea that selling kids is ok, and why do you think there was EVER a benefit to the individual being used in this way? To me, it would make more sense for the parent to sell himself rather than make a child have to deal with a situation that he/she had no part in creating. How about only having the number of kids you can feed, clothe, and house? Even back in the day. If this is such a moral and godly way to live one's life, then why in the hell aren't we doing it now? Just asking.

You are entitled to your opinion, but when you are unable to see the difference between being employed and being owned, you have seriously waved the white flag.