If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’ then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
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Exodus 21:3-6 sits inside this longer paragraph.
“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’ then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
Parallel Translations
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If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;’
then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
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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 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.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
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 aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Show all 3 translations
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If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master give him a wife, and she bear him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
But if the servant shall plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free;
then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall 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.
Cross-references (24)
- Deuteronomy 15:17 (v6) then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant…
- Leviticus 25:40 (v6) As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.
- Deuteronomy 15:16-17 (v5) It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you, then you…
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (v5) For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who…
- Deuteronomy 19:17-18 (v6) then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those…
Show all 24 cross-references
- 1 Samuel 28:2 (v6) David said to Achish, “Therefore you will know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you my bodyguard…
- Exodus 12:12 (v6) For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will…
- Exodus 18:21-26 (v6) Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be…
- Exodus 21:22 (v6) “If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as…
- Exodus 22:8-9 (v6) If the thief isn’t found, then the master of the house shall come near to God, to find out whether or not he has put his hand on his…
- Exodus 22:28 (v6) “You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
- Leviticus 25:23 (v6) “ ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
- Numbers 25:5-8 (v6) Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.” Behold, one of the children of Israel…
- Deuteronomy 1:16 (v6) I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and…
- Deuteronomy 15:12-14 (v3) If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go…
- Deuteronomy 16:18 (v6) You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the…
- 1 Samuel 1:22 (v6) But Hannah didn’t go up, for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before…
- 1 Samuel 8:1-2 (v6) When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They…
- 1 Samuel 27:12 (v6) Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he will be my servant forever.”
- 1 Kings 12:7 (v6) They replied, “If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them, and answer them with good words, then they will be your…
- Psalms 40:6-8 (v6) Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said,…
- Isaiah 26:13 (v5) Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but we will only acknowledge your name.
- Zephaniah 3:3 (v6) Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
- Isaiah 1:26 (v6) I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (15 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6 Not having wife nor children.
Not having wife nor children.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–6 Exo 21:3 If he came in by himself, he…
Exo 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.
Ver. 3. If he came in by himself,] Without a second-self, a yoke fellow, standing on even ground with himself, though drawing on the left side.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6 By himself, i.e. with his own person only, not…
By himself, i.e. with his own person only, not with a wife, as the opposite branch showeth.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–6 If he came in by himself, he shall go…
If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself,.... That is, if he came into his servitude "alone", as the Septuagint version has it, he should go out of it in like manner; the word for "by himself", some interpret with "his garment" (f), or the skirt of one; and then the sense seems to be, that as he was clothed when he was sold, so he should be when made free: but rather the phrase literally is "with his body" (g); not his naked body, or as destitute of raiment, and the necessaries of life; for, as before observed, his master was to furnish him liberally with good things: but the plain meaning is, that if he was a single or unmarried man when he entered his master's service, he should go out, so; or as a Jewish writer (h) expresses it, as if he should say, with his body, without another body with him, who is his wife, as appears by what follows; unless his master should give him a wife while in his service, which is supposed in the next verse, and even then he was to go out alone, if he chose to go out at all; though Jarchi says, if he was not married at first, his master might not give him a Canaanitish woman to beget slaves of her:
if he were married, then his wife shall go with him; that is, if he had a wife, a daughter of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan; or an Israelitish woman, as Jarchi, and had her at his coming; for otherwise, if it was one his master after gave him, she might not go out, as appears by the following verse; but being his wife before his servitude, and an Israelitish woman, was not the master's bondmaid, nor bought with his money, and therefore might go out free with her husband.
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(f) "cum quali veste", V. L. "cum veste sua"; some in Vatablus & Drusius. (g) "Cum corpore suo", Munster, Pagninus, Vatablus, Drusius; "solus corpore suo", Junius & Tremellius; "cum solo corpore suo", Piscator. (h) R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 15. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v6 For ever - As long as he lives, or…
For ever - As long as he lives, or till the year of Jubilee.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6 Verse 3. If he came in by himself] If…
Verse 3. If he came in by himself] If he and his wife came in together, they were to go out together: in all respects as he entered, so should he go out. This consideration seems to have induced St. Jerome to translate the passage thus: Cum quali veste intraverat, cum tali exeat. "He shall have the same coat in going out, as he had when he came in," i.e., if he came in with a new one, he shall go out with a new one, which was perfectly just, as the former coat must have been worn out in his master's service, and not his own.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6 Exo 21:3. If he came in by himself —…
Exo 21:3. If he came in by himself — That is, single, he shall so depart: if married, his wife was to depart with him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3, 6 If a married man became a bondman, his rights…
If a married man became a bondman, his rights in regard to his wife were respected: but if a single bondman accepted at the hand of his master a bondwoman as his wife, the master did not lose his claim to the woman or her children, at the expiration of the husband’s term of service. Such wives, it may be presumed, were always foreign slaves.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 6 Raiment. Hebrew Gaph may signify also the body. "If…
Raiment. Hebrew Gaph may signify also the body. "If he come (with his body) alone, let him so depart," Septuagint. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4, 6 4. If his master have given him a wife…
4. If his master have given him a wife — This condition involved certain rights of family and household possession. It contemplates the patriarchal family, in which servants were born, and may also have had in view the fact that the wife in the case supposed might often be a bondmaid acquired from among the heathen, whose legal term of service would not expire before the jubilee. “This may appear oppressive, but it was an equitable consequence of the possession of property in slaves at all.” — Keil.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–6 3. First and second of the special cases, viz.…
3. First and second of the special cases, viz. the cases (1) of an unmarried slave, and (2) of one married before he became a slave. There is no counterpart to this and the following verse in Dt.
by himself (twice)] lit. with his back or body, and with nothing else, i.e. alone, without wife or child. A peculiar expression, found only here and v. 4.
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married] Heb. the possessor of a woman (or wife); so v. 22; ba‘al, ‘possessor,’ also, in the sense of ‘husband,’ Gen_20:3, Deu_24:4 al. The woman, being the possession of her husband, naturally shared his fortunes, and both entered into servitude, and left it, with him.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–6 (3) His wife shall go out with him.—The privilege…
(3) His wife shall go out with him.—The privilege of the married Hebrew slave was to attach also to his wife, if he was married when he became a slave. It further, no doubt, attached to his children.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–5 If he came in by himself, etc.. The first…
If he came in by himself, etc.. The first clause of this verse is further explained in the next; the second secured to the wife who went into slavery with her husband a participation in his privilege of release at the end of the sixth year.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v5 plainly says
plainly says
"clearly says"
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I will not go out free
"I do not want my master to set me free"
bore his ear through
"put a hole in his ear"
awl
a pointed tool used to make a hole
for life
"until the end of his life" or "until he dies"
translationWords
God
doorpost
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–4 21:3 If a man and a wife went into…
21:3 If a man and a wife went into slavery together, they were also to go free together.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.