Text -- Exodus 21:5 (NET)

21:5 But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Exo 21:5

¹ tn The imperfect with the infinitive absolute means that the declaration is unambiguous, that the servant will clearly affirm that he wants to stay with the master. Gesenius says that in a case like this the infinitive emphasizes the importance of the condition on which some consequence depends (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

² tn Or taken as a desiderative imperfect, it would say, “I do not want to go out free.”