the Second Week after Easter
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Revised Standard Version
Exodus 21:2
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
‘If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
If thou bye an Ebrewe seruant, he shall serue sixe yeres, and in the seuenth he shal go out free, for nothing.
"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.
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.
"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.
If thou buy a Hebrew bondman, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
"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.
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
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.
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.
“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.
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years And in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
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.
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
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.
If thou bye a seruaunt that is an Hebrue, sixe yeres he shall serue, & in the seuenth, he shall go out free [paying] nothyng.
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If thou buy an Hebrew seruant, sixe yeeres he shall serue, and in the seuenth he shall goe out free for nothing.
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee, and in the seventh year he shall go forth free for nothing.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
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.
If thou biest an Ebrew seruaunt, he schal serue thee sixe yeer; in the seuenthe yeer he schal go out fre,
`When thou buyest a Hebrew servant -- six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought;
If you buy a Hebrew slave, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall depart free for nothing.
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.
"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.
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he will work for six years. In the seventh year he will go free, paying nothing.
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.
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.
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
"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.
"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
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
God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year."
The LORD said, "I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son."
Then she went, and sat down over against him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Let me not look upon the death of the child." And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and wept.
And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
And Abraham said, "I will swear."
When Abraham complained to Abim'elech about a well of water which Abim'elech's servants had seized,
And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
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.
