Misinterpretations often portray this verse as endorsing chattel slavery or sex trafficking, equating it to modern abuses, while overlooking its context within Mosaic laws distinguishing Hebrew bondservants—who had rights, sabbath rest, and Jubilee release—from harsher foreign slavery. Another error assumes unrestricted master authority over women, ignoring the redemption requirement and prohibition on foreign sale as safeguards against deceit, which ensured familial repurchase and prevented treating her as mere property.
Exodus 21:8
King James Version (1769)
8 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.
This passage provides protections for a Hebrew girl sold as a servant and designated by her master for marriage, reflecting ancient Near Eastern customs of indentured servitude for debt repayment. If she does not please him and he chooses not to marry her, he must allow her redemption by her family or others, but he cannot sell her to foreigners, as doing so would constitute dealing deceitfully with her by violating the betrothal agreement; it underscores accountability, limits on exploitation, and her right to return to Israelite society rather than permanent foreign enslavement.