“If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.”
If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. The law protects the female servant from being trafficked when the master decides he does not want her. If he rejects her, he must allow her redemption — she can be bought back by her family. The prohibition on selling her to foreigners is explicit and grounded in the language of faithfulness: he has broken faith with her. The covenantal language — breaking faith — applied to the treatment of a female servant reflects the same covenant ethics that govern Israel's relationship with God. How one treats the vulnerable is a matter of covenant faithfulness, not merely social custom.
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