Exodus 21:11

And if he do not these three unto her,.... Not the three things last mentioned; though this sense, Aben Ezra says, many of their interpreters give, which is rejected by him, so do some Christian

And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. No JFB commentary on this verse.

And with gifts also by virtue of the law, . The sum is this, The master was either, 1. Willing to part with her; and then he was to let her be redeemed by herself, or any of her friends, but not by a heathen, . Or, 2. Willing to keep her; and then, as he had betrothed her, he was to perform all the duties of a husband to her, although he had another wife besides her, . 3. If he would keep her, and yet deny those duties to her, then as his fault was aggravated, so was his punishment; for now he cannot sell her, but must let her go freely, as in this verse.

Exodus 21:11 And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.Ver. 11. And if he do not these three unto her.] Picus est imago ingrati mariti, quia sub autumnum eiecit coniugem, ne cogatur per hyemem nutrire: postea sub vernum tempus eam ad se blande revocat, ac in consortium recipit. Melancthon.

(11) These three—i.e., one of these three things: (1) Espouse her himself; (2) marry her to his son; or (3) transfer her, on the terms on which he received her, to another Hebrew.

Verse 11. These three] 1. Her food, שארה sheerah, her flesh, for she must not, like a common slave, be fed merely on vegetables. 2. Her raiment - her private wardrobe, with all occasional necessary additions. And, 3. The marriage debt - a due proportion of the husband's time and company.

11. these three] The three rights mentioned in v. 10. The view expressed above is the one ordinarily taken of vv. 7–11, vv. 8–10 stating three special cases, falling under the general case of v. 7, If a man sell his daughter, &c. Budde, however (ZATW. 1891, p. 102 f.), argues forcibly, and Bä. agrees, that the three special cases fall, not under the general case of v. 7, but under the general case of v. 8a, If she please not her master,—the first two, as upon the ordinary view, relating to the time before the woman is taken actually as a concubine: the three cases being (1) he may let her be redeemed, v. 8b; (2) how he is to deal with her, if he passes her on to his son, v. 9; (3) how he is to deal with her, if, after having made her his concubine, he takes another concubine as well. If the girl bought in this way was as a matter of course bought to be her master’s concubine, the words in v. 8, ‘who hath designated her for himself,’ are otiose; on the other hand, the condition that the two alternatives mentioned in vv. 8, 9 are to be adopted only if she is still a virgin, ought, Budde thinks, to be clearly expressed: accordingly, taking ‘not’ from the margin, and transposing two letters in the following word, he reads for the words quoted, who (or in case he) hath not known her (Genesis 4:1): he further argues that this view does better justice to the wording of v. 8 (which is not, as it should be on the ordinary view, If he hath designated her for himself, and she please him not), and to the tense of ‘designate’ in v. 9 (which is the impf., as in vv. 10, 11, not the perf., as in v. 8a), and also that it explains better v. 9b (why, if he originally intended her as a concubine for his son, should he treat her as a daughter, and so place her in a better position than if he intended he for himself? On the other hand, this is intelligible, if he did not fulfil his original engagement to her, and passed her on to his son). For another solution of the difficulties of the passage, resting upon a further emendation, see W. R. Smith, ZATW. 1892, p. 162 f., or Ryssel in Di.2 p. 253.

If he do not these three unto her - The words express a choice of one of three things.

11. These three — Most simply, the three things mentioned in the previous verse; namely, food, raiment, and cohabitation.