Albert Barnes Commentary Exodus 21

Judgments - that is, decisions of the law.

A Hebrew might be sold as a bondservant in consequence of either debt (Leviticus 25:39) or of committing theft (Exodus 22:3). But his servitude could not be enforced for more than six full years. Compare the marginal references.

If a married man became a bondservant, his rights concerning his wife were respected. However, if a single bondservant accepted a bondservant woman from his master as his wife, the master did not lose his claim to the woman or her children when the husband’s term of service ended. Presumably, such wives were always foreign slaves.

Forever - That is, most probably, until the next Jubilee, when every Hebrew was set free. See Leviticus 25:40, Leviticus 25:50. The custom of boring the ear as a mark of slavery appears to have been a common one in ancient times, observed in many nations.

To the judges - Literally, “before the gods אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym.” The word does not denote “judges” in a direct way, but it is to be understood as the name of God, in its ordinary plural form, God being the source of all justice. The name in this connection always has the definite article prefixed. See the marginal references. Compare Psalms 82:1, Psalms 82:6; John 10:34.

A man might, in accordance with existing custom, sell his daughter to another man, intending for her to become an inferior wife or concubine. In this case, she was not “to go out,” like the bondsman; that is, she was not to be dismissed at the end of the sixth year. But women who were bound in any other way, seem to have been under the same conditions as bondsmen. See Deuteronomy 15:17.