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Exodus 21 Bible study: I will not go out free

The ordinances open with a servant, set before a people just brought out of "the house of bondage" (20:2). A Hebrew servant went free in the seventh year (21:2), and only his own words could keep him (21:5-6). A master who destroyed a servant's eye had to set him free (21:26). Jesus quoted "An eye for an eye" and said, "don’t resist him who is evil" (Matthew 5:38-39).

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“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.”
Exodus 21:2 · World English Bible

Try it · Did you catch it?

“In Exodus 21, a Hebrew servant's ear was bored only after he himself said he would not go out free.”

Is that in Exodus 21, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

The first law is about a servant

In the text

The ordinances open with a servant: "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything" (21:2). The people these laws were set before had just heard the LORD say, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (20:2). In Hebrew, "house of bondage" is beit avadim, and avadim is the plural of eved, the word for "servant" here. Later law says it outright: "For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves" (Leviticus 25:42), and "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you" (Deuteronomy 15:15).

Where it leads to Jesus

An eye for an eye

In the text

Exodus 21:24leads toMatthew 5:38-39

The law says, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (21:24), words it gives again in Leviticus 24:20 and Deuteronomy 19:21. Jesus quoted the saying, which the WEB words a little differently in Matthew: "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’" (Matthew 5:38). Then he said, "But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39).

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Exodus 21

That was a taste

The rest of Exodus 21 is waiting in Favor

  • The servant who chose to stay
  • Where "eye for eye" comes from
  • A place to flee, and no shelter at the altar
  • Free for his eye's sake
  • 13 questions as you read
  • 9 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

עֶבֶדevedsay EH-ved

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "slave, servant". Strong's traces it to the verb avad (H5647), "work, serve" (Brown-Driver-Briggs), the verb in "he shall serve six years" (21:2). This chapter uses the noun for the Hebrew servant (21:2, 21:5) and for servants who are struck or gored (21:20, 21:26-27, 21:32). Israel had just heard, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (20:2), and in Hebrew "house of bondage" is beit avadim: avadim is the plural of this word. Leviticus uses it of Israel itself: "For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 25:42).

For your group

Exodus 21 Bible study questions

  1. 1The servant who could have gone free said, "I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free" (21:5). What commitment in your life have you kept because you chose to, not because you had to?
  2. 2Jesus quoted "An eye for an eye" and said, "don’t resist him who is evil" (Matthew 5:38-39). Where is it hardest for you to let go of getting even?
  3. 3These laws make people pay for harm they cause, from a blow in a quarrel (21:18-19) to a pit left uncovered (21:33-34). Is there something you need to make right with someone this week?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 21 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

What is Favor?

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