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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Exodus 21:7

"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 Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Children;   Concubinage;   Daughter;   Divorce;   Servant;   Wife;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Divorce;   Servants;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Servant;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Ethics;   Husband;   Justice;   Slave;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Concubine;   Family Life and Relations;   Law;   Slave, Slavery;   Woman;   Work;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Freedom;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Law;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Economic Life;   Exodus, Book of;   Freedom;   Hammurabi;   Pentateuch;   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;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Concubine;   Servant;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Law of Moses;   Slave;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Servant;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Covenant, the Book of the;   Criticism (the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis);   Daughter;   Father;   Law in the Old Testament;   Maid;   Relationships, Family;   Slave;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Allegorical Interpretation;   Daughter in Jewish Law;   Family and Family Life;   Father;   Law, Codification of;   Marriage;   Slaves and Slavery;   Woman, Rights of;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"If a man sells his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.
King James Version
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
Lexham English Bible
"‘And if a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she will not go out as male slaves go out.
New Century Version
"If a man sells his daughter as a slave, the rules for setting her free are different from the rules for setting the male slaves free.
New English Translation
"If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.
Amplified Bible
"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go free [after six years] as male servants do.
New American Standard Bible
"Now if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Likewise if a man sell his daughter to be a seruant, she shal not goe out as the men seruantes doe.
Legacy Standard Bible
"And if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do.
Contemporary English Version
A young woman who was sold by her father doesn't gain her freedom in the same way that a man does.
Complete Jewish Bible
"If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she is not to go free like the men-slaves.
Darby Translation
And if a man shall sell his daughter as a handmaid, she shall not go out as the bondmen go out.
Easy-to-Read Version
"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.
English Standard Version
"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
George Lamsa Translation
And when a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out free as the menservants do.
Good News Translation
"If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she is not to be set free, as male slaves are.
Christian Standard Bible®
“When a man sells his daughter as a concubine, she is not to leave as the male slaves do.
Literal Translation
And when a man sells his daughter for a slave-girl, she shall not go out as the male slaves go out.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf a man sell his doughter to be an handmayde, then shal she not go out as the menseruauntes.
American Standard Version
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.
Bible in Basic English
And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And if a man sell his daughter to be a seruaunt, she shal not go out as the men seruauntes do.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.
King James Version (1611)
And if a man sell his daughter to be a mayd seruant, shee shall not goe out as the men seruants doe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if any one sell his daughter as a domestic, she shall not depart as the maid-servants depart.
English Revised Version
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
Berean Standard Bible
And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If ony man sillith his douyter in to seruauntesse, sche schal not go out as handmaidis weren wont to go out;
Young's Literal Translation
`And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants;
Update Bible Version
And if a man sells his daughter to be a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
Webster's Bible Translation
And if a man shall sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not depart as the men-servants do.
World English Bible
"If a man sells his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.
New King James Version
"And if a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
New Living Translation
"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.
New Life Bible
"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she is not to go free as the male servants do.
New Revised Standard
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And when a man shall sell iris daughter to be a handmaid, she shall not go out according to the out-going of the men-servants,
Douay-Rheims Bible
If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bondwomen are wont to go out.
Revised Standard Version
"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do.

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

sell: Nehemiah 5:5

go out: Exodus 21:2, Exodus 21:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 31:15 - sold us Deuteronomy 21:14 - thou shalt Isaiah 50:1 - or which

Cross-References

Genesis 21:11
The matter gave great pain to Abraham—after all, Ishmael was his son. But God spoke to Abraham, "Don't feel badly about the boy and your maid. Do whatever Sarah tells you. Your descendants will come through Isaac. Regarding your maid's son, be assured that I'll also develop a great nation from him—he's your son, too."
Psalms 86:8
There's no one quite like you among the gods, O Lord, and nothing to compare with your works. All the nations you made are on their way, ready to give honor to you, O Lord, Ready to put your beauty on display, parading your greatness, And the great things you do— God, you're the one, there's no one but you!
Ephesians 3:10
The Secret Plan of God This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant,.... That is, if an Israelite, as the Targum of Jonathan, sells his little daughter, as the same Targum, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra, one that is under age, that is not arrived to the age of twelve years and a day, and this through poverty; he not being able to support himself and his family, puts his daughter out to service, or rather sells her to be a servant:

she shall not go out as the menservants do; that are sold, before described; or rather, according to the Targum,

"as the Canaanitish servants go out, who are made free, because of a tooth, or an eye, (the loss of them,

Exodus 21:26) but in the years of release, and with the signs (of puberty), and in the jubilee, and at the death of their masters, with redemption of silver,''

so Jarchi.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A man might, in accordance with existing custom, sell his daughter to another man with a view to her becoming an inferior wife, or concubine. In this case, she was not “to go out,” like the bondman; that is, she was not to be dismissed at the end of the sixth year. But women who were bound in any other way, would appear to have been under the same conditions as bondmen. See Deuteronomy 15:17.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 21:7. If a man sell his daughter — This the Jews allowed no man to do but in extreme distress - when he had no goods, either movable or immovable left, even to the clothes on his back; and he had this permission only while she was unmarriageable. It may appear at first view strange that such a law should have been given; but let it be remembered, that this servitude could extend, at the utmost, only to six years; and that it was nearly the same as in some cases of apprenticeship among us, where the parents bind the child for seven years, and have from the master so much per week during that period.


 
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