Isa. xlix. 7.  “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant (Christ) justify many.”  Is. liii. 11.  “Behold I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.”  Zech. iii. 8.  In 1 Kings xii. 6, 7, it is applied to King Rehoboam.  “And they spake unto him, saying if thou wilt be a servant unto this people, then they will be thy servants forever.”  In 2 Chron. xii. 7, 8, 9, 13, to the king and all the nation.  The word is used to designate those who perform service for individuals or families, about thirty-five times in the Old Testament.  To designate tributaries about twenty-five times.  To designate the subjects of government, about thirty-three times.  To designate the worshippers both of the true God, and of false gods, about seventy times.  It is also used in salutations and courteous addresses nearly one hundred times.  In fine, the word is applied to all persons doing service for others, and that merely to designate them as the performers of such service, whatever it might be, or whatever the ground on which it might be rendered.  To argue from the fact, of this word being used to designate domestic servants, that they were made servants by force, worked without pay, and held as articles of property, is such a gross assumption and absurdity as to make formal refutation ridiculous.  We repeat what has been shown above, that the word rendered bondmen in Lev. xxv. 44, is used to point out persons rendering service for others, totally irrespective of the principle on which that service was rendered; as is manifest from the fact that it is applied indiscriminately to tributaries, to domestics, to all the subjects of governments, to magistrates, to all governmental officers, to younger sons—­defining their relation to the first born, who is called lord and ruler—­to prophets, to kings, and to the Messiah.  To argue from the meaning of the word ebedh as used in the Old Testament, that those to whom it was applied rendered service against their will, and without pay, does violence to the scripture use of the term, sets at nought all rules of interpretation, and outrages common sense.  If any inference as to the meaning of the term is to be drawn from the condition and relations of the various classes of persons, to whom it is applied, the only legitimate one would seem to be, that the term designates a person who renders service to another in return for something of value received from him.  The same remark applies to the Hebrew verb abadh, to serve, answering to the noun ebedh (servant).  It is used in the Old Testament to describe the serving of tributaries, of worshippers, of domestics, of Levites, of sons to a father, of younger brothers to the elder, of subjects to a ruler, of hirelings, of soldiers, of public officers to the government, of a host to his guests, &c.  Of these it is used to describe the serving of worshippers more than forty times, of tributaries, about thirty five, and of servants or domestics, about ten.