Exodus 21:3

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;

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.

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.

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.

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 `And these [are] the judgments which thou dost set before them: <sup>2</sup> `When thou buyest a Hebrew servant -- six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought; ³ 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; ⁴ if his lord give to him a wife, and she hath borne to him sons or daughters -- the wife and her children are her lord's, and he goeth out by himself. ⁵ `And if the servant really say: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons -- I do not go out free; <sup>6</sup> then hath his lord brought him nigh unto God, and hath brought him nigh unto the door, or unto the side-post, and his lord hath bored his ear with an awl, and he hath served him -- to the age. <sup>7</sup> `And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants; ⁸ if evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he hath not betrothed her, then he hath let her be ransomed; to a strange people he hath not power to sell her, in his dealing treacherously with her. ⁹ `And if to his son he betroth her, according to the right of daughters he doth to her. <sup>10</sup> `If another [woman] he take for him, her food, her covering, and her habitation, he doth not withdraw;

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
and God saith, `Sarah thy wife is certainly bearing a son to thee, and thou hast called his name Isaac, and I have established My covenant with him, for a covenant age-during, to his seed after him.

Genesis 21:6
and Sarah saith, `God hath made laughter for me; every one who is hearing laugheth for me.'

Genesis 21:12
and God saith unto Abraham, `Let it not be wrong in thine eyes because of the youth, and because of thy handmaid: all that Sarah saith unto thee -- hearken to her voice, for in Isaac is a seed called to thee.

Genesis 22:2
And He saith, `Take, I pray thee, thy son, thine only one, whom thou hast loved, even Isaac, and go for thyself unto the land of Moriah, and cause him to ascend there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains of which I speak unto thee.'

Joshua 24:3
and I take your father Abraham from beyond the River, and cause him to go through all the land of Canaan, and multiply his seed, and give to him Isaac.

Matthew 1:2
Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren,

Acts 7:8
`And He gave to him a covenant of circumcision, and so he begat Isaac, and did circumcise him on the eighth day, and Isaac [begat] Jacob, and Jacob -- the twelve patriarchs;

Romans 9:7
nor because they are seed of Abraham [are] all children, but -- `in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'

Hebrews 11:18
of whom it was said -- `In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'

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.