Exodus 21 · Verse 2

Exodus 21:2

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

Exodus 21:2, King James Version

Exodus 21:2 in other translations

BSB	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.
WEB	“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
ASV	If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
YLT	‘When thou buyest a Hebrew servant--six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought;
DARBY	If thou buy a Hebrew bondman, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
BBE	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.
Webster	If thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall depart free for nothing.

What does Exodus 21:2 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 21:2-6

2-6. If thou buy an Hebrew servant--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 (De 15:17).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 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. 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, 2Kgs 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. 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Exodus 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, yet they explain the moral law, and the rules of natural justice. The 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 robbing God of his glory, by the transgression of his precepts…

Read the full comment on Exodus 21:1-11 →

Exodus 21:2 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כִּ֤יkiforH3588

תִקְנֶה֙tik.Nehyou will buyH7069

עֶ֣בֶד'E.veda slaveH5650

עִבְרִ֔י'iv.RiHebrewH5680

שֵׁ֥שׁsheshsixH8337

שָׁנִ֖יםsha.NimyearsH8141

יַעֲבֹ֑דya.'a.Vodhe will serveH5647

וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔תu.Va.she.vi.'Itand in the seventh [year]H7637

יֵצֵ֥אye.Tze'he will go outH3318

לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖יla.cha.fe.Shito <the> free [person]H2670

חִנָּֽם\׃chi.Namwithout payingH2600

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Exodus 21:2

Deuteronomy 15:12-15
And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.
Exodus 12:44
But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
Deuteronomy 15:18
It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
Nehemiah 5:1-5
And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live. Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth. There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards. …
Deuteronomy 15:1
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
Nehemiah 5:8
And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.
Leviticus 25:39-45
And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile: And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. …
Exodus 22:3
If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
Jeremiah 34:8-17
This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. …
Deuteronomy 31:10
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
2 Kings 4:1
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
Genesis 27:28
Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

an Hebrew.
12:44; 22:3; Ge 27:28,36; Le 25:39-41,44; 2Ki 4:1; Ne 5:1-5,8
Mt 18:25; 1Co 6:20
and in the.
Le 25:40-43,45; De 15:1,12-15,18; 31:10; Jer 34:8-17

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Exodus 21:1
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Exodus 21:2
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Exodus 21:3
If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

Read all of Exodus 21

Exodus 21:2 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Si comprares siervo hebreo, seis años servirá; mas el séptimo saldrá horro de balde.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Si tu achètes un serviteur hébreu, il servira six années, et, la septième, il sortira libre, gratuitement.
German Elberfelder 1871	So du einen hebräischen Knecht kaufst, soll er sechs Jahre dienen, und im siebten soll er frei ausgehen, umsonst.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Si emeris servum hebræum, sex annis serviet tibi: in septimo egredietur liber gratis.