When translated the Hebrew word ki, which may also be rendered as “If” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and others). In the casuistic form of law, this word usually introduces the main clause that describes the situation, or “case,” and the weaker term ʾim, which also means “if” or “when,” introduces the subordinate clauses or the various situations that are possible under the same law. Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version usually translate ki as When, and ʾim as “If.” (See verses 3, 4, and 5, which begin with ʾim.) For some translators Revised Standard Version‘s model will be more natural style, but others will follow Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version, where “if” is used for both situations.
Some cultures may have their own linguistic form for stating this type of case law, and translators are encouraged to follow the form that is most natural in their language for all of these laws that follow. The important thing, of course, is first of all to understand clearly the exact situation, or “case,” that each law describes and the exact penalty or punishment that is then prescribed.
When you buy a Hebrew slave describes the situation of either purchasing a slave by paying money (New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible), or acquiring one as payment of a debt. (See the introductory comments above.) You is singular, referring to any Israelite who may own a slave. The word for slave refers to a male, and in this context it is necessary to retain the male identity. In languages where pronouns do not indicate the sex of an individual, and there is no specific word for “male slave,” one may translate the first sentence as “When [or, If] you buy a Hebrew male slave.” The term Hebrew slave should not be changed to “Israelite slave,” since the word Hebrew sometimes referred to a larger group than just the descendants of Jacob (see the comment at 3.18). It was also a term by which non-Israelites often referred to a lower class of people.
He shall serve six years means that he will be bound to his owner for only six years. The word for serve is the same word from which slave is derived, and in some languages he shall serve will be expressed as “He shall serve [or, work] as a slave.” And in the seventh is a literal rendering; “year” is understood. This probably means at the beginning of the seventh year, and it will be helpful to make this explicit and say “But at the beginning of the seventh year you shall….” He shall go out free means that he will leave the household and authority of his master. Good News Translation has “he is to be set free,” and Contemporary English Version has “you must set him free,” Free, for nothing means “freed without compensation.” New Revised Standard Version understands this to mean “a free person, without debt,” but others, including Good News Translation, keep the broader meaning, “without having to pay anything.” Durham adds “without payment to you,” and Translator’s Old Testament adds “without paying for his freedom.” Another way to express this final sentence is “you are to set him free, and he doesn’t have to pay anything to you.”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• When you buy a Hebrew male slave, he shall work for you as a slave for six years. At the beginning of the seventh year, you must set him free, and he will not have to pay anything to you.
Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .