According to the Bible, God spoke to Moses and gave him laws for the Israelites (Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 15). This painting illustrates the law concerning the freeing of enslaved people. After six years of service a Hebrew enslaved person had to be freed in the seventh year. Here a master is embraced by a man and a woman whom he has presumably set free but who may be reluctant to claim their freedom. In the distance other enslaved people can be seen departing and rejoicing. The group in the right foreground may illustrate the law that a freed enslaved person had to leave behind his wife and children if his wife had been given to him by his master.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1847.

Inscribed on the back with the subject, the name of the artist and the date 1847.

The son of Henry and Matilda Jeens, he was born at Uley in Gloucestershire on 19 October 1827. He learned engraving from John Brain and William Greatbach. Early in his career, Jeens worked on postage stamps for British colonies. He was one of the engravers engaged on the Royal Gallery of Art (1854) edited by Samuel Carter Hall, and executed plates for The Art Journal. About 1860 he became associated with Macmillan & Co., for whose Golden Treasury series and other publications he produced many vignettes, and portraits including a series of Scientific Worthies in Nature.