Exodus 21:7

Summary

Exodus 21:7 states a legal condition: if a man sells his daughter as a female slave ('amah, H0519), she does not go free under the same terms as apply when male slaves ('avadim, H5650) go free. The verse introduces a distinct set of rules for a daughter sold into servitude, differentiating her case from the general manumission rule for male slaves.

Key words

• yimKor ("he will sell", H4376) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; sets up the hypothetical/future scenario governed by khi ("if", H3588A).
• 'ish ("a man", H0376G) — masculine singular noun, the subject who performs the selling.
• biT...o ("his daughter", H1323G + H9023) — feminine singular noun in construct form with a pronominal suffix, marking her as the direct object ('et, H0853) and specifying whose daughter is sold.
• teTze' ("she will go out", H3318G) — qal imperfect, third person feminine singular, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); describes what will not happen to her.
• 'avaDim ("male slaves", H5650) — masculine plural noun with definite article ha (H9009), forming the comparative standard against which her situation is measured.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a conditional clause introduced by ve-khi ("and if"), followed by the verb yimKor in the imperfect, which in this legal context expresses a hypothetical future case rather than a simple prediction. The subject 'ish performs the action on the direct object bitO, "his daughter," marked explicitly by the object particle 'et. The purpose of the sale is expressed by the prepositional phrase le-'amah, "for [the purpose of being] a female slave" — the preposition le here indicates function or status rather than mere destination.

The main clause negates teTze' ("she will go out") with lo', and this negated verb is compared to a second occurrence of the same root in the infinitive construct form, ke-tzet, "as/when the going-out [of]." This infinitive is governed by the preposition ke ("like," "as"), creating a direct grammatical parallel between her non-departure and the departure of ha-'avadim, "the male slaves." The masculine plural of 'avadim stands in explicit contrast to the feminine subject of the clause, structurally underlining that the rule for her differs from the rule that applies to male slaves.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'avadim (masculine plural, "male slaves") as αἱ δοῦλαι, a feminine plural ("female slaves"), where the Hebrew specifies male slaves. The Vulgate similarly uses ancillae ("female slaves," feminine) for 'avadim. Among the modern translations, BSB ("menservants") and SBLIBRE ("esclavos varones") preserve the masculine sense of 'avadim, while RV1909's "los siervos" is grammatically ambiguous as to gender.