211 'And these 'are' the judgments which thou dost set before them: 2 'When thou buyest a Hebrew servant—six years he doth serve, and in the seventh he goeth out as a freeman for nought; 3 if by himself he cometh in, by himself he goeth out; if he 'is' owner of a wife, then his wife hath gone out with him; 4 if his lord give to him a wife, and she hath borne to him sons or daughters—the wife and her children are her lord's, and he goeth out by himself. 5 'And if the servant really say: I have loved my lord, my wife, and my sons—I do not go out free; 6 then hath his lord brought him nigh unto God, and hath brought him nigh unto the door, or unto the side-post, and his lord hath bored his ear with an awl, and he hath served him—to the age.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 21:1-6
Commentary on Exodus 21:1-11
(Read Exodus 21:1-11)
The laws in this chapter relate to the fifth and sixth commandments; and though they differ from our times and customs, nor are they binding on us, yet they explain the moral law, and the rules of natural justice. The servant, in the state of servitude, was an emblem of that state of bondage to sin, Satan, and the law, which man is brought into by robbing God of his glory, by the transgression of his precepts. Likewise in being made free, he was an emblem of that liberty wherewith Christ, the Son of God, makes free from bondage his people, who are free indeed; and made so freely, without money and without price, of free grace.