Exodus 21.7-11

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.”

This is difficult to understand. Apparently a man could “sell” his daughter as a “slave” if it seemed she was intended to marry the man who bought her. If this is what’s in view, then the “selling” looks more like a kind of marriage price for, perhaps, an underage woman who would serve her intended until she was able to marry him.

If the marriage did not work out – if the man was not “pleased” with her – she could be redeemed, but only within the community of faith. Alternately – and this is what makes me think the woman was yet a young girl – he might designate her for his son, in which case she ceased to be a slave and became a daughter to him.

He might even take another wife along with her, but he must continue all the privileges and duties of a husband to her as his wife.

This is not easy to understand, as I say. It helps to remember that the Law was given because of the hardness of human hearts, in order to restrain sin and to maintain justice in a society composed of sinful people who did not yet have a heart to obey God freely. It’s easy, looking back from our vantage point, to scoff at the practice outlined here. However, from the perspective of ancient Israel, this statute must have seemed as much an expression of neighbor-love as any other of the commandments of God.

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