Exodus 21:8

Summary

Exodus 21:8 addresses the case of a designated female servant who displeases her master: he must allow her to be redeemed rather than sell her to foreign people, because he has broken faith with her by not fulfilling the designation. The verse is structured as a conditional legal clause (protasis-apodosis) typical of casuistic law in the Torah.

Key words

• ra.'Ah ("she is bad", H7489A) — qal perfect, 3rd feminine singular, describing a completed state of being displeasing; combined with be'einei ("in the eyes of") it forms the idiom for something being unacceptable to someone.
• ye.'a.Da ("he designated", H3259) — qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular; a technical verb referring to the act of setting apart a woman for future marital/household status.
• hef.Da ("he will let be ransomed", H6299) — hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd masculine singular; the hiphil stem marks a causative sense ("cause to be redeemed"), and the vav-sequential form continues the legal sequence begun by the first perfect verb.
• vig.d ("has dealt treacherously", H0898) — qal infinitive construct with pronominal suffix, forming a causal clause ("because of his dealing treacherously with her").
• na.khe.Ri ("foreign", H5237) — masculine singular adjective modifying 'am ("a people", H5971A), specifying the prohibited destination for a sale.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows the standard casuistic pattern: a conditional clause introduced by 'im ("if", H0518A) states the circumstance (ra'ah be'einei 'adoneiha, "she is bad in the eyes of her master(s)"), followed by a relative clause identifying the master as the one 'asher lo ye'adah ("who designated her for himself"). The apodosis begins with the vav-sequential perfect vehefdah, syntactically linking the consequence to the initial condition: because of the stated situation, the master "shall let her be redeemed" (hiphil, causative — he does not redeem her himself but permits/effects her redemption by another).

The second half of the verse states a prohibition: lo' yimshol lemokherah ("he shall not have dominion to sell her"), using the qal imperfect yimshol (ongoing/future force) plus an infinitive construct (lemokherah, "to sell her"). The reason clause closes the verse: bevigdo bah ("because he has dealt treacherously with her"), an infinitive construct with the preposition be- ("because/in"), giving the causal ground for the prohibition — the master's own failure to fulfill the designation is what triggers the restriction on selling her to a 'am nokhri ("foreign people").

Differences between versions

The LXX phrases the condition negatively — ἐὰν μὴ εὐαρεστήσῃ ("if she does not please") — where the Hebrew states positively that she ra'ah ("is bad", H7489A). The Vulgate renders hef.Da (H6299, "he will let be ransomed") as dimittet eam ("he shall release/dismiss her"), shifting from a redemption concept to a release/dismissal concept not explicit in the Hebrew causative verb.