Exodus 21:5

And if. — Better, But if.

I love my master. — Under every system of slavery affection grows up between the slaves and a master who is indulgent to them. At Rome it was common for slaves to endure the severest torture rather than betray or accuse their owners. If a man has no rights, he is thankful for small mercies, and responds with warm feeling to those who treat him kindly. As the Hebrew form of slavery was of a mild type, masters being admonished to treat their slaves “not as bondservants, but as hired servants” (Leviticus 25:39), and, again, “not to rule over them with rigour” (Leviticus 25:46), there would naturally be frequent cases where the slave would not wish to “go out.” He might actually “love his master;” or he might value the security from want which attaches to the slave condition; or he might be unwilling to break up the family which, by his master’s favour, he had been allowed to create. For such cases some provision was necessary. It was made by the law here formulated (Exodus 21:5), which allowed the Hebrew slave, if he liked, to forfeit all claim to freedom, and take upon him permanently the condition of a bondman.