Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Exodus 21:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
At 21:2, the words “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” establish a concrete step in “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership”.
Judgments for a rescued people who still own servants
This verse is one part of that explanation in Exodus 21:1–11. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Exodus 21:1–11
Read Exodus 21:2 with 21:1–11. At 21:2, the words “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” establish a concrete step in “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership”. The whole unit shows: Male Hebrew debt service has a six-year release and contested family provisions; a daughter sold as a female slave receives food, clothing, marital rights, or freedom, within an unequal coercive system.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The case laws begin after rescued identity, covenant charter, and mediated speech; they regulate an unequal ancient society and cannot be detached into timeless approval of slavery. Within the book's larger movement, this unit makes the following contribution: Male Hebrew debt service has a six-year release and contested family provisions; a daughter sold as a female slave receives food, clothing, marital rights, or freedom, within an unequal coercive system. At 21:2, the wording “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” makes this verse's contribution precise. At 21:2, the words “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” establish a concrete step in “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership”.
Read Exodus 21:2–6 together
Why these verses belong together: Male debt-service release and household consequences forms one grammatical or narrative sequence and should not be divided into independent slogans.
Verse 2. 2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Verse 3. 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.
Verse 4. 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.
Verse 5. 5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
Verse 6. 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 aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens at 21:1 with this development: Male Hebrew debt service has a six-year release and contested family provisions; a daughter sold as a female slave receives food, clothing, marital rights, or freedom, within an unequal coercive system.
- By 21:11, the narrated speech, instruction, action, or outcome has completed the movement named “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership.”
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing”
In plain language: At 21:2, the words “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” establish a concrete step in “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership”.
Male Hebrew debt service has a six-year release and contested family provisions; a daughter sold as a female slave receives food, clothing, marital rights, or freedom, within an unequal coercive system. The phrase belongs to 21:1–11.
Why it matters: Careful interpreters agree that the received text states the following: Male Hebrew debt service has a six-year release and contested family provisions; a daughter sold as a female slave receives food, clothing, marital rights, or freedom, within an unequal coercive system. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Exodus 21:2 does not detach the verse's specific words—“If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing”—from their role in “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership” or turn them into an independent command, promise, judgment, ritual, or authorization. Read Exodus 21:2 with 21:1–11. These laws regulate slavery but do not abolish or morally approve ownership, sale, beating, sexual vulnerability, unequal valuation, or coerced service. In context, At 21:2, the words “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” establish a concrete step in “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership”.
What Remains True
Because Exodus 21:2 contributes “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” to “Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing Ownership,” its proportionate enduring truth is: Legal limits can expose and reduce harm without making the underlying power system just; the vulnerable person's body and future remain the decisive ethical concern.
Teach It Back
Explain why Exodus 21:2 says “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing” inside 21:1–11. Name its actor and effect, one historical, Hebrew, compositional, legal, ritual, or ethical limit, one person or group bearing risk, and one conclusion the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Exodus 21:1–11 — Slave Laws Regulate without Abolishing OwnershipSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Exodus 21:2 remains inside this material limit: Careful interpreters agree that the received text states the following: Male Hebrew debt service has a six-year release and contested family provisions; a daughter sold as a female slave receives food, clothing, marital rights, or freedom, within an unequal coercive system. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Exodus 21:1–11, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Exodus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech, law, ritual vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Exod.xml, words and morphology for 21:1–11
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Exodus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2026-08-12
Supports: Unit-bounded Hebrew, syntax, lexical, textual, name, measure, legal, ritual, and older-English notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Exodus PDF, complete 127-page PDF, translation and verse-attached translator notes for 21:1–11
Open source ↗open university course study guide
The Book of the Covenant Study Guide
Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins
Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition
Supports: Case-law form, ancient Near Eastern comparanda, social setting, slavery and gender inequality, legal restraint, and limits of direct modern transfer.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'The Book of the Covenant,' complete study guide pp. 1–5, ancient Near Eastern law, slavery, lex talionis, property, justice, worship, and legal dating limits; applied to Exodus 21:1–11
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open comparative law study
The Hebrew Slave: Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy
Marvin A. Sweeney
TheTorah.com, 2014
Supports: Debt service, sale of daughters, gender inequality, release, family consequences, comparative law, and the continuing coercion of slavery.
Exact location: Sweeney, 'The Hebrew Slave: Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy,' complete article sections comparing Exodus 21:2–11, Deuteronomy 15, Leviticus 25, female slavery, service duration, and ancient legal collections; applied to Exodus 21:1–11
Open source ↗