EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Exodus 21:2
2If you buy an Israelite slave, he must work for you for six years. But in the seventh year he will become a free man. He can leave you. He does not have to pay you any money.
Exodus 21:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
- New International Version (NIV)“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.
- English Standard Version (ESV)When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
- New King James Version (NKJV)If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.
Context of Exodus 21:2
1These are the laws that you must put in front of the Israelites: If you buy an Israelite slave, he must work for you for six years. But in the seventh year he will become a free man. He can leave you. He does not have to pay you any money. 3If he came to you alone, he is free to leave alone. If he came with a wife, she can also leave with him. 4But if the master has given a wife to the slave, she belongs to her master. If she has children, they also belong to her master. The slave must then leave by himself, without his wife and children.
Read all of Exodus 21Exodus 21:2 word by word
כִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת יֵצֵ֥א לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖י חִנָּֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- If thou buyקָנָהqânâh · to buyH7069
- an Hebrewעִבְרִי‛ibrîy · HebrewH5680
- servantעֶ֫בֶד‛ebed · servant/slaveH5650
- sixשֵׁשׁshêsh shishshâh · sixH8337
- yearsשָׁנָהshâneh shânâh · yearH8141
- he shall serveעָבַד‛âbad · to serveH5647
- and in the seventhשְׁבִיעִיshebîy‛îy shebi‛îy · seventhH7637
- he shall go outיָצָאyâtsâ' · to come out: comeH3318
- freeחׇפְשִׁיchophshîy · freeH2670
- for nothingחִנָּםchinnâm · for nothingH2600
Cross-references for Exodus 21:2
- Exodus 12:44If you buy a foreign slave, you must first circumcise him. Then he may eat the food.
- Exodus 22:3But if the owner of the house kills the robber after sunrise, he is guilty of murder. Anyone who takes something that belongs to someone else must pay back the owner. If he cannot pay for everything that he has taken, he must become a slave. The owner will receive the money that someone has paid for the slave.
- Genesis 27:28May God give you rain for your crops, so that they grow well in the good ground. Then you will have plenty of grain for food. And you will have grapes to make wine.
- Leviticus 25:39If an Israelite becomes poor, he might sell himself to you. But he must not work for you as a slave. You must pay him to work as your servant.
- 2 Kings 4:1There was a woman whose husband belonged to the group of prophets. When her husband died, she called out to Elisha for help. She said, ‘Your servant, my husband, is dead. He served the Lord faithfully. My husband was in debt to a certain man. Now that man wants to take my two children to be his slaves.’
- Nehemiah 5:1Some men and their wives were upset, because of the things that some other Jews were doing.
- Matthew 18:25The servant could not pay his big debt to the king. So the king said to his men, “Sell the servant and his wife and his children and all his things. Then I will keep the money to pay his debt.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:20God bought you for himself. He paid the price for you. So use your body to show how great God is.
- Leviticus 25:40He must work for you until the next Jubilee year.
- Deuteronomy 15:1At the end of every seven years you must remove the debts of people that you have lent money to.
- Deuteronomy 31:10Then Moses said to them, ‘You must read this Law to all the Israelites. Read it every seven years at the Feast of Huts, in the year when you forgive people's debts. At that time all the Israelites will go to the place that the Lord your God will choose. When they meet there to worship the Lord, they must listen to this Law.
- Jeremiah 34:8At another time, the Lord gave Jeremiah another message for King Zedekiah. Zedekiah had made an agreement with the people of Jerusalem. They all agreed to let their slaves go free.
Commentaries on Exodus 21:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2If thou buy a Hebrew servant - Calmet enumerates six different ways in which a Hebrew might lose his liberty: In extreme poverty they might sell their liberty. Leviticus 25:39; : If thy brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, etc. A father might sell his children. If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant; see Exodus 21:7. Insolvent debtors became the slaves of their creditors. My husband is dead - and the creditor is come to take unto him my…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2A Hebrew might be sold as a bondman in consequence either of debt Leviticus 25:39 or of the commission of theft Exodus 22:3. But his servitude could not be enforced for more than six full years. Compare the marginal references.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 2A man might sell himself into slavery in order to get money to pay his debts. This law states that the man was never to become the permanent property of the master.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2-62-6. 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…Read the comment
Topics related to Exodus 21:2
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Exodus 21
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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