Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 21:2

"If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing." — Exodus 21:2 (ASV)

If thou buy an Hebrew servant. —Ancient society was founded upon slavery. “The ultimate elements of the household,” says Aristotle, “are the master and his slave, the husband and his wife, the father and his children” (Pol. i. 2, § 1). In any consideration of the rights of persons, those of the slave class naturally presented themselves first, since they were the most liable to infraction.

Slaves might be either natives or foreigners. A Hebrew could become a slave in the following ways:

1. Through crime (Exodus 22:3).
2. Through indebtedness (Leviticus 25:39).
3. Through his father’s right to sell him (Nehemiah 5:5).

Foreign slaves might be either prisoners taken in war or persons bought from their owners (Leviticus 25:45). The rights of Hebrew slaves are specially considered here.

Six years shall he serve. —The Hebrew was not to be retained in slavery for a longer period than six years. If a jubilee year occurred before the end of the six years, then he regained his freedom earlier (Leviticus 25:39–41); however, in no case could he be retained for more than six years in the slave condition, except by his own consent, formally given (Exodus 21:5).

This law was an enormous advance upon anything previously known in the slave legislation of the most civilised country and at once marks the Mosaic code as sympathising with the slave and intent on improving his condition. Some have thought it strange that slavery was not then abrogated; but even Christianity, fifteen hundred years later, did not venture on such a complete social revolution.