“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall leave as a free man without a payment to you.
Parallel translations
- WEB “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
- KJV If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.
- NLT “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A Hebrew servant was to serve six years and go free in the seventh without payment. God built limits and liberty into Israel's servitude laws.
Overview
Unlike surrounding nations, Israel's law required release of Hebrew bondservants after six years, protecting them from permanent enslavement. This reflects God's redemptive concern and recalls Israel's own deliverance from Egypt. The God who frees slaves ultimately frees sinners through Christ, granting true and lasting liberty (John 8:36).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Deut 15:12–15If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, and serves you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
- Exod 12:44but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.
- Deut 15:18It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for he has been double value of a hired hand as he served you six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.
- Deut 31:10Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tents,
- Exod 22:3If the sun has risen on him, guilt of bloodshed shall be for him; he shall make restitution. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
- Neh 5:8I said to them, “We, after our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Jews that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?” Then they held their peace, and found not a word to say.
- Lev 25:39–45“‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
- Jer 34:8–17The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;
- Neh 5:1–5Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.
- Deut 15:1At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts.
- Gen 27:28God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.
- 2 Kgs 4:1Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”
- Matt 18:25But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
- 1 Cor 6:20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
- Gen 27:36He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 21:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.