Exodus 21:7

7 `And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants;

Exodus 21:7 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 21:7

And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant
That is, if an Israelite, as the Targum of Jonathan, sells his little daughter, as the same Targum, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra, one that is under age, that is not arrived to the age of twelve years and a day, and this through poverty; he not being able to support himself and his family, puts his daughter out to service, or rather sells her to be a servant:

she shall not go out as the menservants do;
that are sold, before described; or rather, according to the Targum,

``as the Canaanitish servants go out, who are made free, because of a tooth, or an eye, (the loss of them, ( Exodus 21:26 Exodus 21:27 ) ) but in the years of release, and with the signs (of puberty), and in the jubilee, and at the death of their masters, with redemption of silver,''

so Jarchi.

Exodus 21:7 In-Context

5 `And if the servant really say: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons -- I do not go out free;

6 then hath his lord brought him nigh unto God, and hath brought him nigh unto the door, or unto the side-post, and his lord hath bored his ear with an awl, and he hath served him -- to the age.

7 `And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants;

8 if evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he hath not betrothed her, then he hath let her be ransomed; to a strange people he hath not power to sell her, in his dealing treacherously with her.

9 `And if to his son he betroth her, according to the right of daughters he doth to her.