Exodus 21:2-4

Exodus 21:2-4

[2] If thou buy  an Hebrew  servant,  six  years  he shall serve:  and in the seventh  he shall go out  free  for nothing.  [3] If he came in  by himself,  he shall go out  by himself:  if he were married,  then his wife  shall go out  [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. 

What does Exodus 21:2-4 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The ancients practiced slavery widely in the Near East. These laws protected slaves in Israel better than the laws of other nations protected slaves in those countries. [1]
We should read Exodus 21:4 with the following condition added at the end of the verse: unless he pays a ransom for them. This was possible as is clear from the instructions regarding the redemption of people that follow.
Why did God permit slavery at all? Slavery as a social institution becomes evil when others disregard the human rights of slaves. God protected the rights of slaves in Israel. Likewise the apostle Paul did not urge Philemon to set his slave Onesimus free but to treat him as a brother ( Philemon 1:15-17). As amended by the Torah, slavery became indentured servitude in Israel for all practical purposes, similar to household servanthood in Victorian England. Mosaic law provided that male slaves in Israel should normally serve as slaves no more than a few years and then go free. In other nations, slaves often remained enslaved for life.
"We can then conclude that Exodus 21:2-4 owes nothing to non-Biblical law. Rather it is a statement of belief about the true nature of Israelite society: it should be made up of free men. Economic necessities may lead an Israelite to renounce his true heritage, but his destiny is not in the end to be subject to purely financial considerations. Exodus 21:2 is no ordinary humanitarian provision, but expresses Israel"s fundamental understanding of its true identity. No matter how far reality failed to match the ideal, that ideal must be reaffirmed in successive legislation. Song of Solomon , in gradually worsening economic conditions both Deuteronomy ( Exodus 15:1-18) and the Holiness Code ( Leviticus 25:39-43) reiterate it. It is the male Israelite"s right to release ( Exodus 21:2-4) which explains why the laws of slavery ( Exodus 21:2-11) head that legislation which sought to come to terms with Israel"s new found statehood with all its consequent economic problems under the united monarchy." [2]
Presumably female as well as male slaves could experience redemption from their condition at any time.