Exodus 21:2
in Exodus 21If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
KJV
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
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This verse in Exodus 21
Commentary
7 notes on this verseWe read that every Hebrew keeps the same Passover, and that in the seventh year every prisoner is set free, and that at Jubilee, that is, the fiftieth year, every possession returns to its owner. All this refers not to the present but to the future. For being in bondage during the six days of this world, on the seventh day, the true and eternal sabbath, we shall be free. If we wish to be free, we will be free even while still in bondage in the world.
This site's exposition
six years he shall serve
on Exodus 21:2-4
The week of days is laid over a working life, so six years of service end in a seventh year of release for nothing. Verses 3 and 4 set the limit on that release, since a wife the master gave him and the children she bore stay with the master, and the man goes out alone. Deuteronomy 15:13 and 15:14 add what Exodus leaves out here, that the master furnishes him liberally out of his flock and his floor when he sends him away. Jeremiah 34:8 to 34:17 records the one place Scripture reports this law kept and then broken, when Jerusalem freed its servants under Zedekiah and took them back.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If thou buy an Hebrew servant - Either sold by him or his parents through poverty, or by the Judges for his crimes, yet even such a one was to continue in slavery but seven years at the most.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
If thou buy an Hebrew servant--Every Israelite was free-born; but slavery was permitted under certain restrictions. An Hebrew might be made a slave through poverty, debt, or crime; but at the end of six years he was entitled to freedom, and his wife, if she had voluntarily shared his state of bondage, also obtained release.
If thou buy a Hebrew servant - Calmet enumerates six different ways in which a Hebrew might lose his liberty: 1. In extreme poverty they might sell their liberty. Lev 25:39: If thy brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, etc. 2. A father might sell his children. If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant; see Exo 21:7. 3. Insolvent debtors became the slaves of their creditors. My husband is dead - and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen, 2Ki 4:1.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
A Hebrew might be sold as a bondman in consequence either of debt Lev 25:39 or of the commission of theft Exo 22:3. But his servitude could not be enforced for more than six full years. Compare the marginal references.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֤י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תִקְנֶה֙ | tikneh | you will buy | H7069 → | |
| עֶ֣בֶד | ʾeved | a slave | H5650 → | 799 times |
| עִבְרִ֔י | ʾivri | Hebrew | H5680 → | 34 times |
| שֵׁ֥שׁ | shesh | six | H8337 → | 216 times |
| שָׁנִ֖ים | shanim | years | H8141 → | 877 times |
| יַעֲבֹ֑ד | yaavod | he will serve | H5647 → | 288 times |
| וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת | uvasheviit | and in the seventh [year] | H7637 → | 98 times |
| יֵצֵ֥א | yetze' | he will go out | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖י | lachafeshi | to <the> free [person] | H2670 → | 17 times |
| חִנָּֽם׃ | chinam | without paying | H2600 → |
כִּ֤יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
תִקְנֶה֙you will buy
tiknehH7069 →
עֶ֣בֶדa slave
ʾevedH5650 →799 times
עִבְרִ֔יHebrew
ʾivriH5680 →34 times
שֵׁ֥שׁsix
sheshH8337 →216 times
שָׁנִ֖יםyears
shanimH8141 →877 times
יַעֲבֹ֑דhe will serve
yaavodH5647 →288 times
וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔תand in the seventh [year]
uvasheviitH7637 →98 times
יֵצֵ֥אhe will go out
yetze'H3318 →1067 times
לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖יto <the> free [person]
lachafeshiH2670 →17 times
חִנָּֽם׃without paying
chinamH2600 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 15:1At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 31:10
Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles,
- Leviticus 25:2–4
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD.
- Exodus 23:10–11
For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce,
- Luke 4:18–19
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight…
- Deuteronomy 31:10
Through
Exodus 12:44But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.
it leads to
- Genesis 17:12–13
Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner—even those who are not your offspring.
- Genesis 17:23
On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God…
- Genesis 17:12–13
Through
Deuteronomy 15:18Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless…
it leads to
- Isaiah 21:16
For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.
- Luke 17:7–8
Which of you whose servant comes in from plowing or shepherding in the field will say to him, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?
- Isaiah 21:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, AGAINST JOVINIAN 2.25; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.