
Text -- Exodus 21:2 (NET)




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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley -> Exo 21:2
Wesley: Exo 21:2 - -- Either sold by him or his parents through poverty, or by the judges for his crimes, yet even such a one was to continue in slavery but seven years at ...
Either sold by him or his parents through poverty, or by the judges for his crimes, yet even such a one was to continue in slavery but seven years at the most.
JFB -> Exo 21:2-6
JFB: Exo 21:2-6 - -- Every Israelite was free-born; but slavery was permitted under certain restrictions. An Hebrew might be made a slave through poverty, debt, or crime; ...
Every Israelite was free-born; but slavery was permitted under certain restrictions. An Hebrew might be made a slave through poverty, debt, or crime; but at the end of six years he was entitled to freedom, and his wife, if she had voluntarily shared his state of bondage, also obtained release. Should he, however, have married a female slave, she and the children, after the husband's liberation, remained the master's property; and if, through attachment to his family, the Hebrew chose to forfeit his privilege and abide as he was, a formal process was gone through in a public court, and a brand of servitude stamped on his ear (Psa 40:6) for life, or at least till the Jubilee (Deu 15:17).
Clarke: Exo 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...
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. Lev 25:39 : If thy brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, etc
2. A father might sell his children. If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant; see Exo 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, 2Ki 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; Exo 22:3, Exo 22:4
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

Clarke: Exo 21:2 - -- 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 precipitat...
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. See Clarke’ s note on Exo 23:11, etc. 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.
TSK -> Exo 21:2
TSK: Exo 21:2 - -- an Hebrew : Exo 12:44, Exo 22:3; Gen 27:28, Gen 27:36; Lev 25:39-41, Lev 25:44; 2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:1-5, Neh 5:8; Mat 18:25; 1Co 6:20
and in the : Lev 25:4...
an Hebrew : Exo 12:44, Exo 22:3; Gen 27:28, Gen 27:36; Lev 25:39-41, Lev 25:44; 2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:1-5, Neh 5:8; Mat 18:25; 1Co 6:20
and in the : Lev 25:40-43, Lev 25:45; Deu 15:1, Deu 15:12-15, Deu 15:18, Deu 31:10; Jer 34:8-17

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Exo 21:2
Barnes: Exo 21:2 - -- A Hebrew might be sold as a bondman in consequence either of debt Lev 25:39 or of the commission of theft Exo 22:3. But his servitude could not be e...
Poole -> Exo 21:2
Poole: Exo 21:2 - -- If thou buy an Hebrew servant; of which practice see Jer 34:14 . This was allowed in two cases:
1. When a man for his crimes was condemned by the j...
If thou buy an Hebrew servant; of which practice see Jer 34:14 . This was allowed in two cases:
1. When a man for his crimes was condemned by the judges to be sold; of which see Exo 22:3 2Ki 4:1 Mat 8:25 .
2. When a man pressed by great poverty sold himself or his children; of which see Lev 25:39,40 . The seventh year is to be numbered, either,
1. From the last sabbatical year, or year of release, which came every seventh year; and the sense of the place is, not that he shall always serve six full years, but that he shall never serve longer, and that his service shall last only till that year comes. Or rather,
2. From the beginning of his service; for,
1. It were a very improper speech to say, he shall serve six years, of one who possibly entered into his service but a month before the year of release.
2. In the law of the sabbatical year there is no mention of the release of servants, as there is of other things, Le 25 De 15 ; and in the year of jubilee, when servants are to be released, it is expressed so, as Lev 25:54,55 .
Haydock -> Exo 21:2
Haydock: Exo 21:2 - -- Servant, or slave. A man might sell himself and his children. But if they were females, under age, God prescribes how they are to be treated, ver. ...
Servant, or slave. A man might sell himself and his children. But if they were females, under age, God prescribes how they are to be treated, ver. 7. ---
Six years: in case he were brought immediately after the expiration of the Sabbatic law: none could be detained for a longer period. If a person lost his liberty in the fourth year after the general release, he would recover it in the space of two or three years at latest. (Haydock) (Bonfrere)
Gill -> Exo 21:2
Gill: Exo 21:2 - -- If thou buy an Hebrew servant,.... Who sells himself either through poverty, or rather is sold because of his theft, see Exo 22:3 and so the Targum of...
If thou buy an Hebrew servant,.... Who sells himself either through poverty, or rather is sold because of his theft, see Exo 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 Exo 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, Deu 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.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes: Exo 21:2 The adverb חִנָּם (hinnam) means “gratis, free”; it is related to the verb “to be gracious, show...
Geneva Bible -> Exo 21:2
Geneva Bible: Exo 21:2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for ( a ) nothing.
( a ) Paying no money for his fre...

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Exo 21:1-36
TSK Synopsis: Exo 21:1-36 - --1 Laws for men servants.5 For the servant whose ear is bored.7 For women servants.12 For manslaughter.16 For stealers of men.17 For cursers of parents...
MHCC -> Exo 21:1-11
MHCC: Exo 21:1-11 - --The laws in this chapter relate to the fifth and sixth commandments; and though they differ from our times and customs, nor are they binding on us, ye...
Matthew Henry -> Exo 21:1-11
Matthew Henry: Exo 21:1-11 - -- The first verse is the general title of the laws contained in this and the two following chapters, some of them relating to the religious worship of...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Exo 21:2
Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 21:2 - --
The Hebrew servant was to obtain his freedom without paying compensation, after six years of service. According to Deu 15:12, this rule applied to t...
Constable: Exo 15:22--Lev 1:1 - --II. THE ADOPTION OF ISRAEL 15:22--40:38
The second major section of Exodus records the events associated with Go...

Constable: Exo 19:1--24:12 - --B. The establishment of the Mosaic Covenant 19:1-24:11
The Lord had liberated Israel from bondage in Egy...

Constable: Exo 20:22--24:1 - --4. The stipulations of the Book of the Covenant 20:22-23:33
Israel's "Bill of Rights" begins her...

Constable: Exo 21:1--23:13 - --The fundamental rights of the Israelites 21:1-23:12
It is very important to note that va...
