What Does Exodus 21:7 Mean in the King James?

And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

Exodus 21:7 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The same word for “go out” names the male servant’s release, and this verse says the daughter does not leave on those terms.

THE MEANING

This verse gives the daughter sold as a maidservant a different condition of release: she does not go out as male servants do. The unequal boundary is stated plainly in the text.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a daughter in service receives the same exit as a male servant.

THE ROOT

תֵּצֵא

tēṣēʾ

GROWS FROM

י־צ־א

Go out, come forth, emerge.

The verb means “she will go out,” from the root ⁨יָצָא⁩ (yatsa), “to go out or emerge.” The same root describes the male servant’s release in verse 2, so the distinction here is expressed through the very word for leaving: her departure is not on his terms.

ALSO GROWS

yēṣēʾ: He will go out.

יֵצֵא

This is the form used for the male servant’s release in Exodus 21:2, making the contrast with the daughter’s terms visible in the shared verb.

mōṣāʾ: An outlet, source, or place of going out.

מוֹצָא

This noun from the same root gives “going out” the sense of an actual way through, illuminating the question of who has access to release.

THE PATTERN

The terms of release reveal which people a law or teaching places inside freedom’s scope.

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

Exodus 21:2 · KJVThe male servant’s seventh-year exit gives the comparison point from which this verse’s different terms for a daughter become visible.

And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.

Deuteronomy 15:12 · KJVThis release rule names a Hebrew woman alongside a Hebrew man, explicitly including both in its terms.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28 · KJVIt names bonded status and gender together, then says these categories do not divide those who are one in Christ.

THE THREAD

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

Exodus 21:2 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨יצא⁩ (yatsa), “go out.” Verse 2 says the male servant goes out free, while verse 7 says the daughter does not go out as male servants do; the shared verb carries the release, and the difference in terms remains explicit.

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