Exodus Chapter 21 Verses 1-11 

This chapter begins a series of judgments that God gave unto the children of Israel.  Practically speaking, these judgments were an application of the Ten Commandments that God had commanded the children of Israel in ratifying the law covenant with them.   

These judgments are based on equity.  This is a statement of God’s value of various actions and the equitable value of judicial penalties for breaking the judgments.  For too often in men’s systems of judgment, we see punishments that are not equitable to the crime committed.  Often times, penalties are established by law that give a great variance.  For instance, a penalty of one to ten years in prison for committing a certain crime can result in great unfairness in judgment and make for favoritism based on the financial or political clout of the one being punished or of the family of the one being punished.  The judgments set forth by God for the children of Israel are very specific in nature and apply to all the children of Israel equitably regardless of societal or financial status or political clout.   

:1 “Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 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. 4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.  

7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. 8 If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. 9 And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 10 If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. 11 And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.” 

This section of judgments pertains to the treatment and judgment of servants (slaves).  In those days, most of the time, people would sell themselves into servitude based on debts they owed to others.   

“Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.”  First, a distinction is made between a Hebrew servant and a servant who was not a Hebrew servant.  When the children of Israel went in to possess the land of Canaan, one group of the inhabitants sold themselves to Israel to be their slaves for a lifetime so that they would not be destroyed with the other inhabitants of the land of Canaan that Israel dispossessed.   

The principle of indebted servitude is definitely a biblical principle.  When you owed debts and were unable to pay those debts then you became the servant of the person who paid your debts for you or the person who you owed your debts to.  This principle is presented to us in the New Testament as declaring that we are the servants of Christ because of the debt that he paid for us: 1 Cor. 6:19 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” 

A lifetime of slavery was not generally allowed for Hebrew servants under the judgments given to the children of Israel.  A servant was to serve no more than six years and then would be considered free of his debts and a free person going out free without cost.  In other countries a servant generally would not be set free unless a ransom was paid for his release.   

“If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.”  If a servant was married when he became a servant, then his wife was to be released with him when he was released.   

“If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.”  If the master had given a slave to be the wife of another slave, then when the slave had finished his service, then his wife and children were not allowed to go out with him.  This is a matter of equity.  The wife and her subsequent children were the servants of the master and had a debt to pay.  They were not free of that debt simply because her husband had paid off his debt.   

“And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.”  Here the Lord made provision for the servant who was to be made free, that if he did not want to be separated from his master, wife, and children, then he would enter into a covenant of service for ever with his master.  The awl makes a circular cutting in the ear.  The circle is the bible shape signifying a covenant.  The process set forth is both visible and open for all to see that he has made such a covenant.  It is with just as much dedication that we should enter into the service of our Lord and his fellowship.   

“And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.”  Just as it is not safe today for a young woman to go out at night as the young men do, it was also true during that time.  Depraved human nature has not changed. 

“If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.”  The master who betroths (marries) a maid servant and then puts her away has dealt deceitfully with her.  He has no right or authority to sell her to a strange nation, but is to let her be redeemed.   

“And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.”  If the master gives the maid servant to his son to be his wife, then the master shall deal with her as he would a daughter and not as a maid servant any more.   

“If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.”  The master, who marries a maid servant and then marries another woman, has the obligation to continue to provide for the first wife’s food, raiment and duty of marriage without diminishment.   

'And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.”

A master who violates any of the above three judgments is to let his maid-servant go out free without money.