Exodus 21:3

Easy-to-Read Version

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.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.

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

Lexham English Bible
If he comes in single, he will go out single. If he is the husband of a wife, his wife will go out with him.

New Century Version
If he is not married when he becomes your slave, he must leave without a wife. But if he is married when he becomes your slave, he may take his wife with him.

New English Translation
If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.

Amplified Bible
"If he came [to you] alone, he shall leave alone; if he came married, then his wife shall leave with him.

New American Standard Bible
"If he comes alone, he shall leave alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall leave with him.

Geneva Bible (1587)
If he came himselfe alone, he shall goe out himselfe alone: if hee were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

Legacy Standard Bible
If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

Contemporary English Version
If he was single at the time you bought him, he alone must be set free. But if he was married at the time, both he and his wife must be given their freedom.

Complete Jewish Bible
If he came single, he is to leave single; if he was married when he came, his wife is to go with him when he leaves.

Darby Translation
If he came in alone, he shall go out alone: if he had a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

English Standard Version
If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.

George Lamsa Translation
If he came in single, he shall go out single; if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

Good News Translation
If he was unmarried when he became your slave, he is not to take a wife with him when he leaves; but if he was married when he became your slave, he may take his wife with him.

Christian Standard Bible®
If he arrives alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrives with a wife, his wife is to leave with him.

Literal Translation
If he comes in with his body, he shall go out with his body. If he was the husband of a wife, his wife shall go out with him.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf he came alone, then shal he go out alone also: but yf he came maried, then shall his wife go out with him.

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

Bible in Basic English
If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If he came alone, he shall go out alone: and yf he came maryed, his wyfe shall go out with hym.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.

King James Version (1611)
If he came in by himselfe, he shal goe out by himselfe: if he were married, then his wife shall goe out with him.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If he should have come in alone, he shall also go forth alone; and if his wife should have gone in together with him, his wife also shall go out.

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

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

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
with out prijs; with what maner clooth he entride, with siche clooth go he out; if he entride hauynge a wijf, and the wijf schal go out to gidere.

Young's Literal Translation
if by himself he cometh in, by himself he goeth out; if he [is] owner of a wife, then his wife hath gone out with him;

Update Bible Version
If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.

Webster's Bible Translation
If he came in by himself, he shall depart by himself: if he was married, then his wife shall depart with him.

World English Bible
If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.

New King James Version
If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.

New Living Translation
If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him.

New Life Bible
If he comes alone, he will leave by himself. If he is married, then his wife will leave with him.

New Revised Standard
If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If, by himself, he came in, by himself, shall he go out, - if he was married, then shall his wife go out with him.

Douay-Rheims Bible
With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.

Revised Standard Version
If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

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

by himself: Heb. with his body, Deuteronomy 15:12-14

Reciprocal: Exodus 21:7 - go out Leviticus 25:40 - General Leviticus 25:41 - then shall Leviticus 25:54 - then

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 21:6
Sarah said, "God has made me happy, and everyone who hears about this will be happy with me.

Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, "Don't worry about the boy and the slave woman. Do what Sarah wants. Your descendants will be those who come through Isaac.

Genesis 22:2
Then God said, "Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain."

Joshua 24:3
But I took your father Abraham out of the land on the other side of the River. I led him through the land of Canaan and gave him many children. I gave Abraham his son Isaac.

Matthew 1:2
Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.

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.

Romans 9:7
And only some of Abraham's descendants are true children of Abraham. This is what God said to Abraham: "Your true descendants will be those who come through Isaac."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself,.... That is, if he came into his servitude "alone", as the Septuagint version has it, he should go out of it in like manner; the word for "by himself", some interpret with "his garment" f, or the skirt of one; and then the sense seems to be, that as he was clothed when he was sold, so he should be when made free: but rather the phrase literally is "with his body" g; not his naked body, or as destitute of raiment, and the necessaries of life; for, as before observed, his master was to furnish him liberally with good things: but the plain meaning is, that if he was a single or unmarried man when he entered his master's service, he should go out, so; or as a Jewish writer h expresses it, as if he should say, with his body, without another body with him, who is his wife, as appears by what follows; unless his master should give him a wife while in his service, which is supposed in the next verse, and even then he was to go out alone, if he chose to go out at all; though Jarchi says, if he was not married at first, his master might not give him a Canaanitish woman to beget slaves of her:

if he were married, then his wife shall go with him; that is, if he had a wife, a daughter of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan; or an Israelitish woman, as Jarchi, and had her at his coming; for otherwise, if it was one his master after gave him, she might not go out, as appears by the following verse; but being his wife before his servitude, and an Israelitish woman, was not the master's bondmaid, nor bought with his money, and therefore might go out free with her husband.

f בגפו "cum quali veste", V. L. "cum veste sua"; some in Vatablus Drusius. g "Cum corpore suo", Munster, Pagninus, Vatablus, Drusius "solus corpore suo", Junius Tremellius "cum solo corpore suo", Piscator. h R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 15. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 21:3. 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.