And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
The law requires that if a man betroths a female servant to his son, he must treat her with the standing and care due a daughter. It belongs among the regulations governing servants that shielded them from cruel or exploitative treatment. Under those regulations a Hebrew servant could not be held for life, but was to serve six years and be set free in the seventh year.
Unlike the Ten Commandments proclaimed directly by God from the mount, this direction was delivered privately to Moses for him to communicate to the people. It is one of the additional precepts or detailed judgments given through Moses to explain how the commandments were to be practiced, illustrating and applying them, amplifying their principles and making their obligations more fully understood and enforced, and guarding their sacredness by making clear what the people were required to do. Such added instruction was given because the minds of Israel, blinded and debased by slavery, were not prepared to fully appreciate the far-reaching principles of the ten precepts. These protections for servants were meant to teach Israel, in remembrance of their own bitter servitude in Egypt, to deal with those under their authority with kindness and compassion, as they themselves would wish to be treated.
The law requires that if a man betroths a female servant to his son, he must treat her with the standing and care due a daughter. It belongs among the regulations governing servants that shielded them from cruel or exploitative treatment. Under those regulations a Hebrew servant could not be held for life, but was to serve six years and be set free in the seventh year.
Unlike the Ten Commandments proclaimed directly by God from the mount, this direction was delivered privately to Moses for him to communicate to the people. It is one of the additional precepts or detailed judgments given through Moses to explain how the commandments were to be practiced, illustrating and applying them, amplifying their principles and making their obligations more fully understood and enforced, and guarding their sacredness by making clear what the people were required to do. Such added instruction was given because the minds of Israel, blinded and debased by slavery, were not prepared to fully appreciate the far-reaching principles of the ten precepts. These protections for servants were meant to teach Israel, in remembrance of their own bitter servitude in Egypt, to deal with those under their authority with kindness and compassion, as they themselves would wish to be treated.