Exodus 21:3

Summary

Exodus 21:3 continues the law of the Hebrew servant, addressing his marital status upon release. The verse states that if he entered service alone, he leaves alone; if he entered already married, his wife leaves with him.

Key words

• begappo ("with his body", H1610 + H9003 + H9023) — an idiomatic construct phrase repeated twice, using "body" (gaph) to express the notion of being alone/by oneself, without dependents.
• yavo ("he will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, describing entry into servitude as an ongoing/future-oriented action.
• ba'al ("husband of", H1167H) — masculine singular construct, forming a bound phrase with ishah ("wife", H0802H) to mean "husband of a wife," i.e., a married man.
• veyats'ah ("and she will go out", H3318G) — vav-consecutive (sequential) perfect, marking the narrative consequence that follows from the preceding condition.
• im ("if", H0518A) — conditional particle used twice, structuring the verse as two parallel legal cases.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel conditional clauses introduced by im ("if," H0518A). The first condition uses the idiom begappo ("with his body," H1610) twice — once with yavo ("he will come," H0935G) and once with yetze ("he will go out," H3318G) — creating a mirrored structure: entering "with his body" and leaving "with his body." This construct phrase functions idiomatically to denote solitary status, though its literal components reference the "body" itself.

The second condition shifts to a construct chain, ba'al ishah ("husband of a wife," H1167H + H0802H), identifying the servant's marital status directly rather than through the body-idiom. The clause then moves from imperfect verb forms to a vav-consecutive perfect, veyats'ah ("and she will go out," H3318G), which in Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax signals the resulting action that follows once the condition (being married) is established. The repetition of im creates a two-part legal formula: unmarried status yields solitary departure; married status yields joint departure, marked by ishto ("his wife," H0802H + H9023) and imo ("with him," H5973A + H9033).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew idiom begappo ("with his body") is rendered by the LXX as monos ("alone"), an interpretive translation of the idiom's meaning rather than its literal wording. The Vulgate diverges further, translating the same phrase as "cum quali veste intraverit, cum tali exeat" ("with whatever garment he entered, with that he shall exit"), introducing the concept of clothing (veste) not present in the Hebrew "body" idiom or the LXX's "alone." Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow the LXX's interpretive sense of "alone" rather than the Vulgate's garment reading.