7 'And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants; 8 if evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he hath not betrothed her, then he hath let her be ransomed; to a strange people he hath not power to sell her, in his dealing treacherously with her. 9 'And if to his son he betroth her, according to the right of daughters he doth to her. 10 'If another 'woman' he take for him, her food, her covering, and her habitation, he doth not withdraw; 11 and if these three he do not to her, then she hath gone out for nought, without money.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 21:7-11
Commentary on Exodus 21:1-11
(Read Exodus 21:1-11)
The laws in this chapter relate to the fifth and sixth commandments; and though they differ from our times and customs, nor are they binding on us, yet they explain the moral law, and the rules of natural justice. The servant, in the state of servitude, was an emblem of that state of bondage to sin, Satan, and the law, which man is brought into by robbing God of his glory, by the transgression of his precepts. Likewise in being made free, he was an emblem of that liberty wherewith Christ, the Son of God, makes free from bondage his people, who are free indeed; and made so freely, without money and without price, of free grace.