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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Exodus 21:2

"If you buy a Hebrew slave, then that slave will serve for only six years. After six years, he will be free, and he will have to pay nothing.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Contracts;   Creditor;   Debtor;   Israel;   Sabbatic Year;   Servant;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Creditors;   Feast of Sabbatical Year, the;   Servants;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Servant;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ethics;   Hebrew;   Justice;   Slave;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Deuteronomy, Theology of;   Law;   Slave, Slavery;   Work;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Freedom;   Loan;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Slave;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Economic Life;   Exodus, Book of;   Freedom;   Hammurabi;   Hebrew (Descendent of Eber);   Law, Ten Commandments, Torah;   Pentateuch;   Sabbatical Year;   Slave/servant;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Canon of the Old Testament;   Covenant, Book of the;   Ethics;   Family;   Hexateuch;   Law;   Leviticus;   Priests and Levites;   Sabbatical Year;   Sin;   Slave, Slavery;   Ten Commandments;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Ear;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Servant;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Law of Moses;   Loan;   Slave;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Sabbath;   Servant;   Year;   Zedekiah;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Azazel;   Courts, Judicial;   Covenant, the Book of the;   Hammurabi, the Code of;   Hebrew;   Law in the Old Testament;   Number;   Oded;   Pentateuch;   Poor;   Sabbatical Year;   Slave;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Commandments, the 613;   Hammurabi;   Hebrew;   Marriage;   Slaves and Slavery;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
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.
Lexham English Bible
‘If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing.
New Century Version
"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve you for six years. In the seventh year you are to set him free, and he will have to pay nothing.
New English Translation
"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything.
Amplified Bible
"If you purchase a Hebrew servant [because of his debt or poverty], he shall serve six years, and in the seventh [year] he shall leave as a free man, paying nothing.
New American Standard Bible
"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall leave as a free man without a payment to you.
Geneva Bible (1587)
If thou bye an Ebrewe seruant, he shall serue sixe yeres, and in the seuenth he shal go out free, for nothing.
Legacy Standard Bible
"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.
Contemporary English Version
If you buy a Hebrew slave, he must remain your slave for six years. But in the seventh year you must set him free, without cost to him.
Complete Jewish Bible
"If you purchase a Hebrew slave, he is to work six years; but in the seventh, he is to be given his freedom without having to pay anything.
Darby Translation
If thou buy a Hebrew bondman, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
English Standard Version
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
George Lamsa Translation
When you buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve you; and in the seventh year he shall go out free from your house without price.
Good News Translation
If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve you for six years. In the seventh year he is to be set free without having to pay anything.
Christian Standard Bible®
“When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years; then in the seventh he is to leave as a free man without paying anything.
Literal Translation
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years And in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf thou bye a seruaunt that is an Hebrue, he shal serue the sixe yeares, in the seuenth yeare shall he go out fre and lowse.
American Standard Version
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Bible in Basic English
If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
If thou bye a seruaunt that is an Hebrue, sixe yeres he shall serue, & in the seuenth, he shall go out free [paying] nothyng.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
King James Version (1611)
If thou buy an Hebrew seruant, sixe yeeres he shall serue, and in the seuenth he shall goe out free for nothing.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee, and in the seventh year he shall go forth free for nothing.
English Revised Version
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Berean Standard Bible
If 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.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If thou biest an Ebrew seruaunt, he schal serue thee sixe yeer; in the seuenthe yeer he schal go out fre,
Young's Literal Translation
`When thou buyest a Hebrew servant -- six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought;
Update Bible Version
If you buy a Hebrew slave, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Webster's Bible Translation
If thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall depart free for nothing.
World English Bible
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
New King James Version
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.
New Living Translation
"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.
New Life Bible
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he will work for six years. In the seventh year he will go free, paying nothing.
New Revised Standard
When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When thou shalt acquire a servant who is a Hebrew, six years, shall he serve, - but in the seventh shall he go out freely - for nought.
Douay-Rheims Bible
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Revised Standard Version
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
THE MESSAGE
"When you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years. The seventh year he goes free, for nothing. If he came in single he leaves single. If he came in married he leaves with his wife. If the master gives him a wife and she gave him sons and daughters, the wife and children stay with the master and he leaves by himself. But suppose the slave should say, ‘I love my master and my wife and children—I don't want my freedom,' then his master is to bring him before God and to a door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl, a sign that he is a slave for life.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

Contextual Overview

1 Then God said to Moses, "These are the other laws that you will give to the people: 2 "If you buy a Hebrew slave, then that slave will serve for only six years. After six years, he will be free, and he will have to pay nothing. 3 If he is not married when he becomes your slave, when he becomes free, he will leave without a wife. But if the man is married when he becomes your slave, then he will keep his wife at the time he is made free. 4 If the slave is not married, the master can give him a wife. If that wife gives birth to sons or daughters, she and her children will belong to the master. After the slave is finished with his years of service, he will be made free. 5 "But if the slave decides that he wants to stay with the master, he must say, ‘I love my master. I love my wife and my children. I will not become free—I will stay.' 6 If this happens, the master will bring the slave before God. The master will take the slave to a door or the wooden frame around the door and pierce the slave's ear using a sharp tool to show that the slave will serve that master for all his life. 7 "A man might decide to sell his daughter as a slave. If this happens, the rules for making her free are not the same as the rules for making the men slaves free. 8 If the master who chose her for himself is not pleased with her, then he can sell the woman back to her father. If the master broke his promise to marry her, he loses the right to sell her to other people. 9 If the master promised to let the slave woman marry his son, he must treat her like a daughter, not like a slave. 10 "If the master marries another woman, he must not give less food or clothing to the first wife. And he must continue to give her what she has a right to have in marriage.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

an Hebrew: Exodus 12:44, Exodus 22:3, Genesis 27:28, Genesis 27:36, Leviticus 25:39-41, Leviticus 25:44, 2 Kings 4:1, Nehemiah 5:1-5, Nehemiah 5:8, Matthew 18:25, 1 Corinthians 6:20

and in the: Leviticus 25:40-43, Leviticus 25:45, Deuteronomy 15:1, Deuteronomy 15:12-15, Deuteronomy 15:18, Deuteronomy 31:10, Jeremiah 34:8-17

Reciprocal: Genesis 17:13 - bought Exodus 21:7 - go out Exodus 21:11 - General Leviticus 25:54 - then Deuteronomy 15:13 - General Romans 7:14 - sold

Cross-References

Genesis 17:19
God said, "No, I said that your wife Sarah will have a son. You will name him Isaac. I will make my agreement with him that will continue forever with all his descendants.
Genesis 17:21
But I will make my agreement with Isaac, the son who Sarah will have. He will be born at this same time next year."
Genesis 18:10
Then one of them said, "I will come again in the spring. At that time your wife Sarah will have a son." Sarah was listening in the tent and heard these things.
Genesis 18:14
But is anything too hard for the Lord ? I will come again in the spring, just as I said I would, and your wife Sarah will have a son."
Genesis 21:16
Then she walked a short distance away and sat down. She thought her son would die because there was no water. She did not want to watch him die. She sat there and began to cry.
Genesis 21:17
God heard the boy crying, and God's angel called to Hagar from heaven. He said, "What is wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid! God has heard the boy crying there.
Genesis 21:24
And Abraham said, "I promise to treat you the same way you have treated me."
Genesis 21:25
Then Abraham complained to Abimelech because Abimelech's servants had captured a well of water.
Luke 1:36
And here's something else: Your relative Elizabeth is pregnant. She is very old, but she is going to have a son. Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but she has been pregnant now for six months.
Acts 7:8
"God made an agreement with Abraham; the sign for this agreement was circumcision. And so when Abraham had a son, he circumcised him when he was eight days old. His son's name was Isaac. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob. And Jacob did the same for his sons, who became the twelve great ancestors of our people.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If thou buy an Hebrew servant,.... Who sells himself either through poverty, or rather is sold because of his theft, see Exodus 22:3 and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,

"when ye shall buy for his theft, a servant, a son of an Israelite;''

agreeably to which Aben Ezra observes, this servant is a servant that is sold for his theft; and he says, it is a tradition with them, that a male is sold for his theft, but not a female; and the persons who had the selling of such were the civil magistrates, the Sanhedrim, or court of judicature; so Jarchi, on the text, says, "if thou buy", c. that is, of the hand of the sanhedrim who sells him for his theft:

six years he shall serve and no longer; and the Jewish doctors say d, if his master dies within the six years he must serve his son, but not his daughter, nor his brother, nor any other heirs:

and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing; without paying any money for his freedom, as it is explained Exodus 21:11, nay, on the other hand, his master was not to send him away empty, but furnish him liberally out of his flock, floor, and wine press, since his six years' servitude was worth double that of an hired servant, Deuteronomy 15:13, and his freedom was to take place as soon as the six years were ended, and the seventh began, in which the Jewish writers agree: the Targum of Jonathan is, at the entrance of the seventh; and Aben Ezra's explanation is, at the beginning of the seventh year of his being sold; and Maimonides e observes the same. Now as this servant, in the state of servitude, was an emblem of that state of bondage to sin, Satan, and the law, which man is brought into by his theft, his robbing God of his glory by the transgression of his precepts; so likewise, in his being made free, he was an emblem of that liberty wherewith Christ, the Son of God, makes his people free from the said bondage, and who are free indeed, and made so freely without money, and without price, of pure free grace, without any merit or desert of theirs; and which freedom is attended with many bountiful and liberal blessings of grace.

d Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 2. e Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A Hebrew might be sold as a bondman in consequence either of debt Leviticus 25:39 or of the commission of theft Exodus 22:3. But his servitude could not be enforced for more than six full years. Compare the marginal references.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 21:2. 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. Leviticus 25:39: If thy brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, c.

2. A father might sell his children. If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant see Exodus 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, 2 Kings 4:1.

4. A thief, if he had not money to pay the fine laid on him by the law, was to be sold for his profit whom he had robbed. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft; Exodus 22:3-4.

5. A Hebrew was liable to be taken prisoner in war, and so sold for a slave.

6. A Hebrew slave who had been ransomed from a Gentile by a Hebrew might be sold by him who ransomed him, to one of his own nation.

Six years he shall serve — It was an excellent provision in these laws, that no man could finally injure himself by any rash, foolish, or precipitate act. No man could make himself a servant or slave for more than seven years; and if he mortgaged the family inheritance, it must return to the family at the jubilee, which returned every fiftieth year.

It is supposed that the term six years is to be understood as referring to the sabbatical years; for let a man come into servitude at whatever part of the interim between two sabbatical years, he could not be detained in bondage beyond a sabbatical year; so that if he fell into bondage the third year after a sabbatical year, he had but three years to serve; if the fifth, but one. Exodus 23:11; Exodus 23:11, &c. Others suppose that this privilege belonged only to the year of jubilee, beyond which no man could be detained in bondage, though he had been sold only one year before.


 
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