Exodus 21:8

If the man who bought her wanted her to be his wife, but if later he is not pleased with her, he must sell her back to her father. He must not sell her to a foreigner, because that would be breaking the contract/agreement he made with the girl’s father.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

In Context

7If a man sells his daughter to become a slave, she should not be set free after six years, as the male slaves are.

9If the man who buys her wants her to be a wife for his son, he must then treat her as though she were his own daughter.

Read all of Exodus 21

Cross References

Genesis 28:8Esau also realized that his father Isaac did not approve of women from the Canaan people-group.

Deuteronomy 20:7If anyone among you has become engaged to marry a woman but has not married her yet [RHQ], he should go home. If he stays here and dies in the battle, someone else will marry her.’

Deuteronomy 21:14Later, if he no longer is pleased with her, he will be permitted to allow her to leave him. But because she was forced to have sex with him, he will not be allowed to treat her like a slave and sell her to someone else.”

Judges 14:3His mother and father objected very strongly. They said, “Is there no woman from our tribe, or from the other Israeli tribes, that you could marry? Why must you go to the heathen Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She is the one I want!”

1 Samuel 18:8When Saul heard them singing that, he did not like it. He became very angry. He said to himself, “They are saying that David killed 10,000 men, but that I have killed only 1,000. Soon they will want to make him their king!” [RHQ]

Malachi 2:11You people of Judah have been unfaithful to Yahweh. You have done detestable things in Jerusalem and in other places in Israel. You Israeli men have defiled the temple that Yahweh loves. You have done that by marrying women who worship idols.

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Exodus 21:8