Jeremiah 2:14-15

Israel was Yahweh’s "firstborn son," not a slave or even a homeborn servant. People paid to purchase slaves for a period of service in Israel, but homeborn servants belonged to their masters as personal possessions (Exodus 21:1-6). [Note: See The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Slave, Slavery," by Kenneth A. Kitchen.] As a firstborn son, Israel enjoyed the special care and provisions of the Lord. Then why had he become a prey to enemies? Enemy rulers, like young lions, had threatened and devoured Israel’s land and destroyed its cities. The lion was a symbol of both Assyria and Babylonia. The Northern Kingdom had gone into captivity in 722 B.C. After that captivity, lions multiplied in the land and became a threat to the people who lived there (cf. 2 Kings 17:25). The Assyrians attacked the Israelites like voracious lions many times.

"Israel, in the metaphor, had not only become a slave, but after a generation or more had become a household servant, one for whom even the memory of freedom had been lost. But the statement of Israel’s slavery in the form of two questions implies that slavery should never have come to pass. Israel, in its covenant, had been granted freedom." [Note: Craigie, p. 32.]