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Exodus 21:3

in Exodus 21

If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.

KJV

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

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This verse in Exodus 21

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
If a married man became a bondman, his rights in regard to his wife were respected: but if a single bondman accepted at the hand of his master a bondwoman as his wife, the master did not lose his claim to the woman or her children, at the expiration of the husband’s term of service. Such wives, it may be presumed, were always foreign slaves.

This site's exposition

If you buy a Hebrew servant

on Exodus 21:2-4

The week of days is laid over a working life, and in the seventh year he goes “free without paying anything”. Deuteronomy 15:13 and 15:14 add that the master supplies him from flock and floor.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

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.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

If he came in by himself - If he and his wife came in together, they were to go out together: in all respects as he entered, so should he go out. This consideration seems to have induced St. Jerome to translate the passage thus: Cum quali veste intraverat, cum tali exeat. “He shall have the same coat in going out, as he had when he came in,” i.e., if he came in with a new one, he shall go out with a new one, which was perfectly just, as the former coat must have been worn out in his master’s service, and not his own.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • בְּגַפּ֥וֹwith body his

    begapoH1610 →4 times

  • יָבֹ֖אhe will come

    yavo'H935 →2568 times

  • בְּגַפּ֣וֹwith body his

    begapoH1610 →4 times

  • יֵצֵ֑אhe will go out

    yetze'H3318 →1067 times

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • בַּ֤עַל[is the] husband of

    baalH1167 →84 times

  • אִשָּׁה֙a wife

    ʾishahH802 →781 times

  • ה֔וּאhe

    hu'H1931 →1879 times

  • וְיָצְאָ֥הand she will go out

    veyatzeahH3318 →1067 times

  • אִשְׁתּ֖וֹwife his

    ʾishtoH802 →781 times

  • עִמּֽוֹ׃with him

    imoH5973 →1050 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

The Israelites Leaving Egypt, David Roberts, 1829. Public domain.
The Israelites Leaving Egypt, David Roberts, 1829. Public domain.
Exodus: the study guide →Read Exodus 21 →

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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Exodus 21 →