Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 21:5

"But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:" — Exodus 21:5 (ASV)

And if. —Better, But if.

I love my master. —Under every system of slavery, affection grows up between slaves and a master who is indulgent to them. At Rome, it was common for slaves to endure the severest torture rather than betray or accuse their owners. If a man has no rights, he is thankful for small mercies, and responds with warm feeling to those who treat him kindly.

As the Hebrew form of slavery was of a mild type, masters being admonished to treat their slaves not as bondservants, but as hired servants (Leviticus 25:39–40), and, again, not to rule over them with rigour (Leviticus 25:46), there would naturally be frequent cases where the slave would not wish to go out.

He might actually love his master; or he might value the security from want which attaches to the slave condition; or he might be unwilling to break up the family which, by his master’s favour, he had been allowed to create.

For such cases, some provision was necessary. It was made by the law here formulated (Exodus 21:5–6), which allowed the Hebrew slave, if he liked, to forfeit all claim to freedom and take upon himself permanently the condition of a bondman.