CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 21:7. Not as the men-servants] From Deuteronomy 15:17, ‘Kalisch infers that in this place foreign female servants are intended, whereas in that place Hebrew domestics are meant, by which supposition the seeming contradiction is removed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 21:7-11
THE RIGHTS OF THE FEMALE SLAVE
This passage is somewhat obscure, and in its interpretation we find comparatively little help from the Commentators. It treats of that state of concubinage which was assumed and provided for by the law of Moses. “The natural desire of offspring was, in the Jew, consecrated into a religious hope, which tended to redeem concubinage from the debasement into which the grosser motives for its adoption might have brought it.”
I. The Israelitish daughter as servant and concubine. On account of poverty the Israelite sold his daughter, not merely as a slave, but with the hope that ultimately she would become the wife of her master, or of his son. In this respect she is not to be treated as a male slave. She is not to be sent out in the seventh year, but remain as one of the members of the family. Practically she has become a concubine, and if her rights are respected, it is far better for her to remain in the house of her master, than to go out free as did the manservant in the seventh year. “She shall not go out as the menservants do.” The master must not follow mere caprice. Lust must be checked. She has rights which must be respected.
II. Her rights when betrothed unto the master. He has no power to deal with her as he lists, even though she be evil in his eyes. “If she please not her master, then shall he let her be redeemed.” The father may redeem her by paying back either the whole or part of the purchase money. The master has no power to sell her unto a strange nation. “The Greek, too, did not sell a Greek slave to go beyond the boundary of the land” (Knobel). Her lot would be more severe in a strange land than in her own country. To sell her into a strange land would be to deal unjustly by her. This would be to increase the injustice, if. after having dealt deceitfully with her, he were to sell her unto a strange nation.
III. Her rights when betrothed unto the son. “And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.” “As his son’s concubine, she is to be regarded by him as a daughter.” The servile merged in the connubial relation, and her children would be free.
IV. Her rights if displaced by another. “If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.” If the master take another wife for the son, then the concubine’s domestic rights must remain inviolate. She must have her proper food, her fitting raiment, and her recognised seat and resting-place in the house as a lawful concubine.
V. The concubine’s remedy if her rights are not regarded. “And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.” She becomes a free woman, and the master can get no compensation. Learn that the weakest have rights which must be regarded—and that masters must conduct themselves so as to promote the welfare of the community and the consolidation of the nation.—W. Burrows, B.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 21:7-11. It is a great hardness of heart to sell children for the advantage of men to unnatural fathers.
God’s special judgments take care for daughters as the weaker sex, before men. God will not have any to make merchandise of the children of the Church.
Man’s deceitfulness occasions God’s faithfulness to provide for His oppressed children.
God’s judgments determine all relations justly to be used, servants as servants, children as children.
God’s justice appears in legal freedom, and His goodness to the Gospel freedom under Christ our head.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Slave-Service! Exodus 21:7. Swinnock says that civil subjection to man came in by sinful defection from God. The word “servant” is thought to be derived from a servando, because those who were taken in battle and might have been slain were saved (2 Kings 5:2). As servitude came in with a curse (Genesis 9:25), so sovereignty is promised as a blessing (Genesis 27:9). It was usual for the debtor to become servant to the creditor amongst the Romans, by the law of the Twelve Tables. The French were wont also to sell themselves to noblemen for debt; and the Jews were not ignorant of this practice (2 Kings 4:1). Titus Sempronius would sell his aged and weak servants as cattle. Cato Pollio commanded one of his servants to be thrown into his fishponds for breaking a glass which he valued highly, though he had an abundant stock of them. When Augustus Cæsar heard of it, he entered the place where the glasses were, and broke them all.
“Why didst thou this? Man! was he not thy brother?
Bone of thy bone, and flesh and blood of thine?
But ah, this truth, by Heaven and reason taught,
Was neverfully credited on earth.”
—Pollok.