Exodus 21:2

“If thou buy an Hebrew servant, etc.] Who sells himself either through poverty, or rather is sold because of his theft, (see <022203>Exodus 22:3) and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it, “when ye shall buy for his theft, a servant, a son of an Israelite;” agreeably to which Aben Ezra observes, this servant is a servant that is sold for his theft; and he says, it is a tradition with them, that a male is sold for his theft, but not a female; and the persons who had the selling of such were the civil magistrates, the Sanhedrim, or court of judicature; so Jarchi, on the text, says, “if thou buy”, etc. that is, of the hand of the sanhedrim who sells him for his theft: six years he shall…”

“If thou buy an Hebrew servant--Every Israelite was free-born; but slavery was permitted under certain restrictions. An Hebrew might be made a slave through poverty, debt, or crime; but at the end of six years he was entitled to freedom, and his wife, if she had voluntarily shared his state of bondage, also obtained release. Should he, however, have married a female slave, she and the children, after the husband's liberation, remained the master's property; and if, through attachment to his family, the Hebrew chose to forfeit his privilege and abide as he was, a formal process was gone through in a public court, and a brand of servitude stamped on his ear (Psa 40:6) for life, or at least till…”

“A Hebrew might be sold as a bondman in consequence either of debt Leviticus 25:39 or of the commission of theft Exodus 22:3. But his servitude could not be enforced for more than six full years. Compare the marginal references. return to 'Top of Page'”

“If thou buy an Hebrew servant - Either sold by him or his parents through poverty, or by the judges for his crimes, yet even such a one was to continue in slavery but seven years at the most. Exodus 21:6”

“21:2 A man might sell himself into slavery in order to get money to pay his debts. This law states that the man was never to become the permanent property of the master.”

“an Hebrew: Exo 12:44, Exo 22:3; Gen 27:28, Gen 27:36; Lev 25:39-41, Lev 25:44; Kg2 4:1; Neh 5:1-5, Neh 5:8; Mat 18:25; Co1 6:20 and in the: Lev 25:40-43, Lev 25:45; Deu 15:1, Deu 15:12-15, Deu 15:18, Deu 31:10; Jer 34:8-17 Exodus 21:3”

“The Hebrew servant was to obtain his freedom without paying compensation, after six years of service. According to Deu 15:12, this rule applied to the Hebrew maid-servant as well. The predicate עברי limits the rule to Israelitish servants, in distinction from slaves of foreign extraction, to whom this law did not apply (cf. Deu 15:12, "thy brother"). (Note: Saalschtz is quite wrong in his supposition, that עברי relates not to Israelites, but to relations of the Israelites who had come over to them from their original native land. (See my Archהologie, ֗112, Note 2.)) An Israelite might buy his own countryman, either when he was sold by a court of justice on account of theft ( Exo 22:1), or…”