The NIV Bible uses the word "servant" for this passage, although I think some other translations of the Bible may use the word "slave", but I suppose the closest comparison we could make between what is going on in the first portion of Chapter 21 would be to compare it to "indentured servanthood" which means "a person who is bound to work for another for a specified time".
Why might one Hebrew become a servant to another Hebrew? In the Bible several reasons are given for this. A person could become so poor that he would sell his liberty in order to be provided with room and board. We saw something similar to this happening in Genesis when most of the Egyptians started to run out of money to buy food during the seven years of famine and they sold themselves into servitude to Pharaoh. We were not told whether their servitude was permanent or for a limited time, but this provides us with an idea of how a person might find himself in such dire circumstances that he might go to a wealthy land owner or high official and say, "I pledge myself to work for you for so many years in exchange for a place to live, food in my belly, and clothes on my back. Times are hard and I can't find any work. I have no place to sleep at night. I'll sign myself into your service for a period of time in hopes that the economy will be better when my years with you are up."
Another reason a person might enter into servitude is because he owes a debt far larger than he can ever pay. He might work a number of years as payment for the debt. His family members might have to become servants with him or his creditor also had the right to force his children into service, as was the case with the widow woman in 2 Kings 4 who was left destitute upon the death of her husband and whose creditor was coming to take her two sons as servants.
Later in Exodus we'll see that a thief could be taken into service if, when he is found guilty of stealing, he cannot pay back the value of what he stole and/or cannot pay the fines imposed for his crime. He might have to enter the service of the person he wronged in order to pay off his debt with work.
A father could voluntarily sell his children into servitude. This might be done for a variety of reasons, the most likely being he is in such dire financial straits that he can't properly provide for them at the time. People tended to have large families in the Bible days and if a man were unemployed for a long time or if he became sick or disabled or if his crops failed for several years in a row he might not be able to put enough food on the table to feed his whole family. He could sell his children into servitude for a number of years so they could be adequately fed every day and have a roof over their heads.
In our passage today the Lord lays out rules for how this process is to work. "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. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him." (Exodus 21:2-3) If a man served his master six years he was to go free in the seventh year, no matter how large the debt he may owe. His time is considered served. If he came into service alone he is to depart alone. If he was a married man when he entered into servanthood, when the man's time is up the master must let the wife leave too.
A man who was single when he entered into service is allowed to leave only by himself. If he wished to marry and have a family while in service, his master could provide him with a wife from among the female servants. But the male servant could only leave his master with what he had when he entered service, not with anything his master provided for him while he was there, so if his freedom is more important to him than his wife and children he must leave without them. But if he wants to keep the family together he must stay in service. "If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life." (Exodus 21:4-6) We see here that the master is required to treat his servants kindly. The Bible doesn't specifically say so but kindness is implied when the servant says, "I love my master". A servant who is ill-treated would hardly be likely to say he loves his master and wants to sign on to work for his master for life. If the servant decides to enter into such an agreement, the master will call men to witness the transaction. The servant will stand by the door of his master's house with his earlobe against it and his master will take an awl (a small instrument used for piercing holes) and will run the awl through the man's earlobe and into the door or doorpost behind him. The pierced ear marks the man as a servant for life and piercing his ear up against the master's door signifies that the servant is pledging his loyalty to his master's household for life.
"If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do." (Exodus 21:7) This verse puzzled me until I consulted some online commentaries and it appears that verse 7 has to do with cases in which the man's daughter is pledged to marry either the master or one of his sons. For example, as we discussed earlier in today's study, a father might encounter circumstances in which he is compelled to sell one or more of his children into service. Suppose he has a lovely daughter who is not quite yet old enough to get married but he makes a deal with another man to sell her into the man's service until such time as she will be old enough to marry either the man or one of his sons. The young lady would work in the household (and remain untouched by whichever man she was pledged to marry) until she reached legal age to marry. In those days marriages were usually arranged by the parents and a young woman had little to no choice regarding her marriage partner. So a father in desperate need of money to hold onto the family home or farm, or a father who can't afford to keep his children fed, or a father who owes a debt too large to pay could pledge his daughter to a man or to one of the man's sons in exchange for the man taking her into his household now. When the agreed-upon time arrives, the daughter will marry the man to whom she is promised and at that point she'll become a full family member of the master and is not to be treated like a servant, as we'll see momentarily.
"If she does not please her master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her." (Exodus 21:8) If he decides he doesn't want to marry her after all, he can't sell her to someone else. She was sold into his service for the purpose of eventually becoming his wife and if he breaks his promise to her then she is not bound to remain in service to him or to anyone else. She is to be set free and will no longer be considered to be engaged to him; she can marry someone else instead.
If the man took her into his service to be a wife to one of his sons when both she and the son are of age, she is never to be regarded as a servant or slave. She is to be given all the rights and respect due a daughter-in-law. "If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter." (Exodus 21:9) If his son came of age and did not want to be married to her, the "rights of a daughter" also means it's the master's responsibility to provide her with a dowry just as if she is his own daughter and he is to find a suitable husband for her outside of his household.
If the man took her into his service to become his own wife, and if he marries her, and if later on he decides he'd rather be married to someone else or if he decides he'd like a second wife, he can't take away any of the first woman's rights as a wife. "If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing or marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money." (Exodus 21:10-11) He can't push the first wife aside. He can't mistreat her. He must still provide her with food and clothing and shelter. He must still provide her with his companionship, which I assume includes still having marital relations with her so she won't be deprived of children. A woman in those times needed children who could take care of her in her old age when she might be widowed and on her own. If the man refuses to fulfill all these responsibilities then the woman is no longer bound to him. He must set her free; she does not have to pay any money to "buy" her freedom because she is his wife, not a servant. The Bible doesn't say but I think the man's refusal to provide for her would be considered an annulment of the marriage and the woman could remarry. This would allow her to be provided for by someone else so that she does not end up homeless and hungry.
Most cultures during the time period of the exodus did not have any laws protecting the rights of women. Men of those cultures could throw a wife aside for any reason and they were not obligated to do anything further for them. Women could end up begging on street corners. Women could find themselves with no way to buy food except by prostituting themselves. Women could end up sold into slavery by a husband who no longer wanted them, or women might have to sell themselves into slavery because they were going to starve to death otherwise. The pagan cultures had no laws protecting slaves either. The type of slavery the pagans practiced was lifelong and there were no rules about how slaves were to be treated. A man could treat his slaves any way he pleased and no one would step in and stop him; no one would even bat at eye at what he did with his "property". We don't want to miss the fact that the Lord is telling Israel not to be like these other cultures. The Lord is looking out for anyone who might end up in a position of having to become the indentured servant of another. A time limit is set. Masters are expected to be humane and fair and kind. Women have rights. The Lord cares about how people are treated and He tells the Hebrews they are not to treat each other as "property" when one of them becomes indebted to another.
What the Lord says in our passage today was quite revolutionary for its time. Women and slaves or even paid servants were considered a lower class of human being by most cultures. The Lord is granting them the same respect as free men, which is what they should be granted. We are all the same to the Lord. One person is not more valuable than another. One race or one sex is not more important than another. Each soul is equally valuable to the Lord and it doesn't matter to Him whether a person is male or female, whether a person is wealthy or poor, whether a person is an indebted servant or free. The Lord believes in human rights regardless of race or background or sex or income level. That's why He sets down the laws we've studied today, to show the nation of Israel that each person has basic human rights that must not be taken away from them. The New Testament repeats this information, saying, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
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