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The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

Exodus 21:5-6

EXODUS—NOTE ON Exodus 21:5 Debt was the most common reason that people became slaves. To take a destitute person as a slave could be seen as benevolent, as it guaranteed him food and shelter and some income. The security provided by a good employer led some slaves to choose to remain in that status forever.

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See also Exodus 21:5-6 in other biblical comments:

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 21 DIFFERENT JUDGMENTS _ 1. Master and servant (Exodus 21:1)_ 2. Concerning injury to the person (Exodus 21:12) 3. Concerning property (Exodus 21:33) The Three Chapter s which follow the gi...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    EXODUS 21:2 E. THE LAWS OF SLAVERY. In the 19th cent. slaves were bought and sold as chattels in Liverpool. Here we see one of the stages towards the abolition of slavery, _i.e._ regulation, then the...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    SHALL PLAINLY SAY. Hebrew "saying shall say". Figure of speech _Polyptoton_ (App-6) for emphasis. See note on Genesis 26:28 CHILDREN. sons....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 23:33 _The Book of the Covenant_ The -Book of the Covenant" (see Exodus 24:7 in explanation of the name) is the oldest piece of Hebrew legislation that we possess. The laws co...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Hebrew _male_slaves. Their term of service is fixed for six years (_v._2). A slave is to leave his master's service exactly as he entered it: if he entered it without a wife, he is to leave it without...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The law of slavery. Cf. Deuteronomy 15:12-18; Leviticus 25:39-55 (H and P), where there are other regulations on the same subject, in some respects differing remarkably from those of Ex., and springin...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _plainly say_ -Plainly" should be omitted. It is an attempt to represent in English the idiomatic use of the Hebrew inf. abs., which emphasizes the verb to which it is attached, and is often used in t...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The fourth case. A slave, if he was happy with his master might, if he desired to do so, remain in his master's service for life....

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 21NOW THESE ARE THE ORDINANCES WHICH THOU SHALT SET BEFORE them. (2) If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND IF THE SERVANT SHALL PLAINLY SAY, I LOVE MY MASTER, MY WIFE, AND MY CHILDREN; I WILL NOT GO OUT FREE:_ If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children. It might be t...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    Slavery may be preferable to freedom. This shows the mild nature of slavery among the Hebrews....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT (CONTINUED) I-ii. Regulations regarding the Treatment of Hebrew Slaves. Slavery was universal in ancient times, and the Mosaic Law does not abolish it. Among the Hebrews, howe...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    EXODUS: *ISRAEL BECOMES A NATION GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS TO MOSES EXODUS CHAPTER S 19 TO 40 _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ CHAPTER 21 *HEBREW SLAVES – VERSES 1-11 V1 The *LORD continued to speak to...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    AND IF. — Better, _But if._ I LOVE MY MASTER. — Under every system of slavery affection grows up between the slaves and a master who is indulgent to them. At Rome it was common for slaves to endure th...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ אִם ־אָמֹ֤ר יֹאמַר֙ הָ עֶ֔בֶד אָהַ֨בְתִּי֙

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE LESSER LAW. Exodus 20:18 - Exodus 23:33. With the close of the Decalogue and its universal obligations, we approach a brief code of laws, purely Hebrew, but of the deepest moral interest, confes...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER XXI. _ THE LESSER LAW (continued)._ PART II.--RIGHTS OF THE PERSON. Exodus 21:1. The first words of God from Sinai had declared that He was Jehovah Who brought them out of slavery. And in t...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    At this point we have certain laws which apply the principles of the Decalogue to life. The first movement has to do with the laws of the person. This begins with the relation of slaves to their maste...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Beside the sense of those verses in reference to the servitude among the houses of Israel, is there not somewhat strikingly typical of the Lord Jesus here represented? Did he not say, by the mouth of...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai." Up to this point all the dealings of God have been the...

  • James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

    _THE PREVAILING MOTIVE_ ‘The servant shall plainly say, I love my Master … I will not go out free.’ Exodus 21:5 John Wesley said truly that slavery is the sum of all the villainies. And yet servitu...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 19 THROUGH 23. But having thus terminated the course of grace, the scene changes entirely. They do not keep the feast on the mountain, whither God, as He had...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AND IF THE SERVANT SHALL PLAINLY SAY,.... Or, "in saying shall say" i shall express himself in plain and full terms, and repeat his words, and abide by them, signifying it as his last will and determi...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Ver. 5. _I love my master._] A little better than he in Plautus, that said, _Ego non servio l...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 Lawes for men seruants. 5 For the seruant whose eare is boared. 7 For women seruants. 12 For manslaughter. 16 For stealers of men. 17 For cursers of parents. 18 For smiters. 22 For a hurt by...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, the slave preferring a continuation of his slavery in the company of his family to freedom wit...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    PRECEPTS REGULATING THE MASTER'S RELATION TO SLAVES...

  • Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures

    C. FIRST FORM OF THE LAW OF THE POLITICAL COMMONWEALTH Exodus 21:1 to Exodus 23:33 _a. Right of Personal Freedom (according to Bertheau, ten in number)_ 1Now these _are_ the judgments [ordinances] w...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    RESPONSIBILITIES OF MASTERS (vs.1-11) Moses is now given an expanded view of the law on Chapter s 21-23. Special duties of masters are first considered. They may think they have full authority over t...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    SHALL PLAINLY SAY: _ Heb._ saying shall say...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-11 The laws in this chapter relate to the fifth and sixth commandments; and though they differ from our times and customs, nor are they binding on us, yet they explain the moral law, and the rules...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    No text from Poole on this verse....

  • Notes on the Pentateuch by Charles Henry Mackintosh

    The study of this section of our book is eminently calculated to impress the heart with a sense d God's unsearchable wisdom and infinite goodness. It enables one to form some idea of the character of...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Exodus 21:5 servant H5650 plainly H559 (H8800) says H559 (H8799) love H157 (H8804) master H113 wife...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    EXPANSION OF THE TEN WORDS OF THE COVENANT (EXODUS 20:22 TO EXODUS 23:33). In this section, which is composed of elements put together mainly in chiastic form (see later), Yahweh expands on the Ten W...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    REGULATIONS WITH REGARD TO SLAVES AND VIOLENCE TO FELLOWMEN (EXODUS 21:2). It is always difficult to appreciate the ancient mind and its working, but there is a case here for seeing a chiastic patter...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Laws concerning servants. Injuries to the person. CHARACTERS: God, Moses. CONCLUSION: The great God of heaven stoops to take interest in the detail affairs between man and man and makes re...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Exodus 21:1. _These are the judgments._ In this chapter we enter upon the fifty seven precepts of the civil law of the Hebrew nation. They are the laws of patriarchal society; and are here arranged an...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _If thou buy an Hebrew servant._ SLAVERY AND SOVEREIGNTY These judgments of God are the declarations of human rights. I. These judgments dealt with an existing institution. The circumstances under...

  • The children's great texts of the Bible by James Hastings

    BORED EARS I love my master... I will not go out free. Exodus 21:5. In country places you may have noticed sheep or cattle marked on the fleece with marks or letters showing to whom they belonged. I...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— Exodus 21:1. Judgments.] Here begins the second part of “The Book of the Covenant” (ch. Exodus 24:7), the entire contents of which seem to range themselves thus:— 1. Safeguards of wo...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT.—_Continued_. I. _Laws connected with the rights of persons_ (Exodus 21:1). The regulations of this section concern— 1. Slavery ...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Exodus chapter twenty-one, God said to Moses, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them (Exodus 21:1). Now the judgments are really for the judges. You remember they appointed seve...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    and if Deuteronomy 15:16 Deuteronomy 15:17 Isaiah 26:13 2 Corinthians 5:14...

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