Exodus 21:2

Summary

The verse opens a legal case (casuistic law) about the purchase of a 'Ever ("Hebrew", H5680) male slave. It sets a fixed term of service — shesh shanim ("six years", H8337 + H8141) — after which the person is released in the seventh year chinnam ("without paying", H2600).

Key words

• ki ("for/if", H3588A) — conditional particle opening the casuistic formula ("if/when you buy..."), typical of Israelite legal-case style.
• tikNeh ("you will buy", H7069) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular; addresses a generic legal subject ("you") who acquires the slave.
• ya'aVod ("he will serve", H5647G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular; the subject switches from "you" (the buyer) to "he" (the slave), marking the duration of service as the slave's own action.
• yeTze' ("he will go out", H3318G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular; describes the slave's own act of departing, not being released by another's agency in the verb form itself.
• chinNam ("without paying", H2600) — adverb modifying the manner of departure, specifying that no payment or compensation is required for the release.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a conditional legal clause: the particle ki ("for/if", H3588A) introduces the protasis, followed by the verb tikNeh ("you will buy", H7069) in the imperfect, addressed to an implied legal agent ("you"). The object of purchase is specified by two nouns in apposition: 'Eved ("a slave", H5650) and 'ivRi ("Hebrew", H5680), the second functioning as a gentilic modifier identifying the group to which the slave belongs.

The apodosis contains two imperfect verbs with different grammatical subjects. First, ya'aVod ("he will serve", H5647G) takes the slave as its subject, following the temporal phrase shesh shanim ("six years", H8337 + H8141) — the number precedes the noun, a common Biblical Hebrew word order for measured time expressions. Second, after the conjunction u- ("and", H9002) and the prepositional phrase va-shevi'It ("in the seventh [year]", H7637), the verb yeTze' ("he will go out", H3318G) again has the slave as subject, expressed with the same 3rd person masculine singular imperfect form as ya'aVod. The final phrase la-chofshi ("to the free [person/status]", H2670) with the adverb chinNam ("without paying", H2600) specifies both the resulting status (freedom) and the absence of monetary condition attached to it.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tikNeh ("you will buy") with κτήσῃ ("you acquire/possess") and adds σοι ("to you") after δουλεύσει ("he will serve"), making explicit in Greek what is only implied by context in the Hebrew — that the service benefits the buyer. The Vulgate similarly adds tibi ("to you") after serviet ("he will serve"), a clarifying dative not present as a separate word in the Hebrew text, where the addressee of service is understood from the verb tikNeh's 2nd person form rather than stated again in the second clause.