Treatment of Servant-Wives

The Book of the Covenant (Ex. 21–23), in applying God’s law to specific situations, gives case laws describing particular scenarios and how to use the law in addressing them. It does not cover every possible situation, and indeed, there would be no end to its stipulations if it tried. Instead, it gives paradigmatic examples that the legal authorities in ancient Israel could apply in similar cases. Thus, we should not think that the principles behind any of the specific applications in the Book of the Covenant were limited to the situation described; rather, these principles could be used elsewhere.

Thus, many of the principles given for the treatment of male slaves or servants in Exodus 21:1–6 were applied in other cases, even in cases involving female servants. Yet given that women were in a more vulnerable social position than men in the ancient Near East, specific case laws for females were also needed. We see this in today’s passage.

Exodus 21:7–11 addresses the treatment of female slaves but not those who were merely slaves. In view are situations where a woman was made both a servant and a wife. A man would pay both a dowry and a labor fee to the woman’s family to take her first as a servant and then as a wife for himself or for his son. Her status was less that of an actual indentured worker and more that of a wife whose children have different inheritance rights than the children of a man’s first wife. For example, a man might take a second wife or concubine, as many of the patriarchs did (see Gen. 16; 29:1–30). Or a widower who already had children might remarry. The Mosaic law says that the firstborn son has inheritance rights that cannot be negotiated away (Deut. 21:15–17), so giving a second wife a servant status would help safeguard the rights of the children born to the man’s first wife.

But although the wife envisioned in today’s passage was of a lower social status than a man’s first wife, she had to be protected. If during the probationary period of service before the marriage the man became displeased with her, he could not sell her to another man but had to allow her to be redeemed (Ex. 21:7–8). If the man married her and then took other wives, he had to provide for her just as well as his other wives (v. 10). If the man paid the bride price to take her as a wife for his son, he was required to treat her just as he would treat a daughter (v. 9). If he failed in any of these areas, he had to release her from her status as servant or slave without demanding a redemption price (v. 11).