Exodus 21:11

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 threespecial 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 beforethe 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, afterhaving 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 Daniel 2; Daniel 2 p. 253.