Exodus 21:5

Study note

Setting — The servant addresses his master to formally decline his legal right to manumission after six years of service. This occurs when the master provided a wife and children who legally remain the master's property.

The words — The Hebrew verb אָהַ֙בְתִּי ('a.Hav.ti) literally means "I love," recording the servant's explicit verbal declaration of attachment.

The thread — The text directly echoes the voluntary lifelong servitude pattern in Deuteronomy 15:16, while later interpreters apply the language of binding love to Christ’s compulsion of believers in 2 Corinthians 5:14.

Why it lands — The passage demands a conscious, spoken renunciation of freedom in exchange for permanent household attachment.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.