Exodus 21:1-11

Ordinances for the People

1 "Now these are the ¹ordinances which you are to set before them:

2 "If you buy ²a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

3 "If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

4 "If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.

5 "But ³if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

6 then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

7 "⁴If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free ⁵as the male slaves do.

8 "If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her.

9 "If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.

10 "If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or ⁶her conjugal rights.

11 "If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Exodus 21:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 21

In this, and the two following chapters, are delivered various laws and precepts, partly of a moral, and partly of a religious, but chiefly of a civil nature, respecting the commonwealth of Israel, and its political good. This chapter treats of servants, and laws relating to them; to menservants, how long they shall serve, and what is to be done to those who are desirous of staying with their masters after their time is up, Ex 21:1-6, to maidservants, and especially betrothed ones, either to a father or a son, Ex 21:7-11, likewise it contains laws concerning the slaughter of men, whether with design or unawares, Ex 21:12-14, and concerning the ill usage of parents, Ex 21:15,17, and man stealing, Ex 21:16 and of mischief that comes by men's quarrelling and fighting, Ex 21:18,19 and by smiting a man or maidservant, Ex 21:20,21,26,27, to a woman with child, that is, by means of men's striving and contending with each other, Ex 21:22-25 and of damages that come by oxen, or to them, Ex 21:28-36.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 24:3, 4; Deuteronomy 4:14; Deuteronomy 6:1
• 2. Leviticus 25:39-43; Deuteronomy 15:12-18; Jeremiah 34:14
• 3. Deuteronomy 15:16, 17
• 4. Nehemiah 5:5
• 5. Exodus 21:2, 3
• 6. 1 Corinthians 7:3, 5

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "by himself"
• [b]. Lit "by himself"
• [c]. Lit "by himself"
• [d]. Or "the judges who acted in God's name"
• [e]. Lit "go out"
• [f]. Lit "go out"
• [g]. Lit "bad"
• [h]. Another reading is "so that he did not designate her"
• [i]. Lit "dealing treacherously"
• [j]. Lit "flesh"