If his master have given him a wife
One of his slaves, a Canaanitish woman, on purpose to beget
slaves on her, since all born in his house were his own; this is
supposed to be after he was come into his house, and into his
service:
and she have born him sons or daughters;
as she might have born him several of the one sort, or the other,
if she was given to him quickly after his servitude began:
the wife and her children shall be her
master's:
she being his slave, and bought with his money, he had a right
unto her, and to the children belonging to her, the birth
following the belly; and being born in his house, they were also
his. Jarchi here observes, that the Scripture speaks of a
Canaanitish woman, for an Hebrew woman went out at the sixth
year, and even before the sixth, if she produced the signs, that
is, of puberty:
and he shall go out by himself;
without his wife and children: if it be objected to this law,
that it is contrary to the law of marriage, which is
indissoluble, but by this dissolved; it may be replied, that the
servant was not obliged by it to leave his wife, unless he chose
it; on complying with certain conditions after mentioned, he
might continue with her; besides, she was, according to Jarchi,
but his secondary wife, and not only so, the marriage was not
lawful, being with a Canaanitish woman, and not agreeable to the
Lord; and being also her master's slave, to whom he had a right,
he could retain her if he pleased, having only given her to his
servant to beget slaves on for him.