Scripture Daily

Context No. 3621 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 21:7-11: in context

7“If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do. 8If she doesn’t please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. 9If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter. 10If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights. 11If he doesn’t do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.

This is another hard law of the ancient world, and we read it as a restraint that inserts protection where there was often none. In a culture where a poor family might sell a daughter into servitude, this law surrounds her with rights. She cannot simply be discarded or sold off to foreigners; if the man who took her fails her, she must be redeemed or set free.

If she is married into the family, she must be treated as a daughter. And if a man takes another wife, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her marital rights; if he fails in any one of these, she goes free, owing nothing. Even in that harsh world, God's law moves to defend the dignity and provision of the vulnerable woman, refusing to let her be treated as mere property. The enduring principle, drawn out fully in the light of Christ, is God's care for the vulnerable and his insistence that they be treated with dignity and justice, even, and especially, those with little power to defend themselves.

Do I honor the God-given dignity of the vulnerable, especially those with little power to defend themselves, insisting they be treated justly rather than used?

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