Exodus 21:5

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'

King James Version
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

Lexham English Bible
But if the slave explicitly says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,"

New Century Version
"But if the slave says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children, and I don't want to go free,'

New English Translation
But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

Amplified Bible
"But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not leave as a free man,'

New American Standard Bible
"But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not leave as a free man,'

Geneva Bible (1587)
But if the seruant saye thus, I loue my master, my wife and my children, I will not goe out free,

Legacy Standard Bible
But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

Contemporary English Version
But suppose the slave loves his wife and children so much that he won't leave without them.

Complete Jewish Bible
Nevertheless, if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children, so I don't want to go free,'

Darby Translation
But if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free;

Easy-to-Read Version
"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.'

English Standard Version
But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

George Lamsa Translation
And if the servant shall say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free;

Good News Translation
But if the slave declares that he loves his master, his wife, and his children and does not want to be set free,

Christian Standard Bible®
“But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I do not want to leave as a free man,’

Literal Translation
And if the slave truly says, I love my master, my wife and my children; I do not desire to go out free,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Neuertheles yf the seruaunt saye: I loue my master, and my wife and children, I wil not go out fre:

American Standard Version
But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

Bible in Basic English
But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And yf the seruaunt say: I loue my maister, my wyfe, and my chyldren, I wyll not go out free:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
But if the servant shall plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free;

King James Version (1611)
And if the seruant shall plainely say, I loue my master, my wife, and my children, I will not goe out free:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if the servant should answer and say, I love my master and wife and children, I will not go away free;

English Revised Version
But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

Berean Standard Bible
But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,'

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
That if the seruaunt seith, Y loue my lord, and wijf, and children, Y schal not go out fre;

Young's Literal Translation
`And if the servant really say: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons -- I do not go out free;

Update Bible Version
But if the slave shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my sons; I will not go out free:

Webster's Bible Translation
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not depart free:

World English Bible
But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'

New King James Version
But if the servant plainly says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

New Living Translation
But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don't want to go free.'

New Life Bible
But if the servant says, ‘I love my owner, my wife and my children; I do not care to go free,'

New Revised Standard
But if the slave declares, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person,"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my lord, and my wife and my sons, - I will not go out free,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:

Revised Standard Version
But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

Contextual Overview

¹ "These are the laws that you are to place before them: ²"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. ⁷"When a man sells his daughter to be a handmaid, she doesn't go free after six years like the men. If she doesn't please her master, her family must buy her back; her master doesn't have the right to sell her to foreigners since he broke his word to her. If he turns her over to his son, he has to treat her like a daughter. If he marries another woman, she retains all her full rights to meals, clothing, and marital relations. If he won't do any of these three things for her, she goes free, for nothing.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

And if: Deuteronomy 15:16, Deuteronomy 15:17, Isaiah 26:13, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 2 Corinthians 5:15

shall plainly say: Heb. saying shall say

Cross-References

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, "I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I'll make a covenant between us and I'll give you a huge family."

Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, "Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby?"

Romans 4:19
Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And if the servant shall plainly say,.... Or, "in saying shall say" i shall express himself in plain and full terms, and repeat his words, and abide by them, signifying it as his last will and determined resolution:

I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I will not go out free; but continue in his servitude, having a great affection for his master, and that he might enjoy his wife and children he dearly loved; and being animated with such a principle, his servitude was a pleasure to him: and when our obedience to God springs from love to him, and to his cause and interest, which should be as dear to us as our families, it is then acceptable to God and delightful to ourselves; in Deuteronomy 15:16,

it is, because he loveth thee, and thine house, because he is well with thee; hence the Jewish writers say k, understanding by "house" a family, if a servant has a wife and children and his master not, his ear is not to be bored; and if his master has a wife and children and he has not, his ear is not to be bored; if he loves his master and his master do not love him, or his master loves him and he do not love his master, or if he is sick, &c. his ear is not to be bored.

i אמר יאמר k T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 22. 1. Maimon. in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 2.