Exodus 21: 1-11: “Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 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. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. 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. And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.”
Every person in Israel was obliged to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt. Everything they did and believed in was predicated on the fact that the Lord had taken them out of slavery and established them as a viable nation, later they would be established in their own Land. This was an unimaginable scenario while they were still enslaved. The Lord also understood that some people were more successful in their commercial and agricultural lives than others and allowances had to made to cater for those, who often for no fault of their own, fell on hard times. The ancient world had no bankruptcy laws and any person who was in debt was expected to repay that debt, even if they had to sell themselves or their children. These are the background issues behind this section. The Lord made sure that a person would not have to suffer a lifelong sentence for being unsuccessful, they would be released after six years of servitude. However, if a person in this situation was married during their six years then they had to accept the fact that they were not free to marry in their own right and leave their spouse behind. However, a man might find that it was better for him to stay in another’s service or he might love his wife and want to stay with her so the Lord made allowances for that as well. That man could voluntarily stay in servitude for life, with his family. In a land of arranged marriages a man might decide to buy a wife for his son. That woman was to be given special protection and not treated like a slave. She was not allowed to be sold outside Israel and lose her rights as a member of the Lord’s chosen race.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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