Exodus 21:2

When/If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for only six years. In the seventh year you must free him from being your slave, and he is not required to pay you anything for setting him free.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

In Context

1“Here are some other instructions to give to the Israeli people:

3If he was not married before he became your slave, and if he marries someone while he is your slave, his wife is not to be set free with him. But if he was married before he became your slave, you must free both him and his wife.

Read all of Exodus 21

Cross References

Genesis 27:36Esau said, “It is right [RHQ] that his name is Jacob, which means ‘cheat,’ because he deceived me two times. The first time he took my rights from being his firstborn son, and this time he took my blessing!” Then he asked, “Do you not have any blessing left for me?”

Exodus 22:3But if that happens during the daytime, the one who killed the thief is guilty of murdering him. The thief must pay for what he stole. If he has no animals with which to pay for the one that he stole, he must be sold to become someone’s else’s slave and the money must be used to pay for what he stole.

Leviticus 25:54‘And even if a fellow Israeli who has sold himself to a rich man is not able to pay for himself to be freed by any of these ways, he and his children must be freed in the Year of Celebration,

Deuteronomy 15:12“If any of your fellow Israeli men or women sell themselves to one of you to become your slave, you must free them after they have worked for you for six years. When the seventh year comes, you must free them.

Deuteronomy 31:10Moses/I told them, “At the end of every seven years, at the time that all debts are canceled, read this to the people during the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters.

Nehemiah 5:1Later, many of the men and their wives protested loudly about what some of the other Jews were doing.

Matthew Henry on Exodus 21:2-12

Judicial Laws. ( b. c. 1491.) 1 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 And if the servant shall plainly say,… Read the whole commentary →

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