Look closely at one Hebrew word

Here is how I would check it.

Start with a law that rarely appears in marriage teaching. Press the marked word and you will see the Hebrew, the readings ancient translators gave it, and the places you can check those readings.

The other passage studies work the same way. Read the sentence, look closely at the words that matter, and keep the sources close enough to open. The full Exodus page does this with the rest of the law.

Read the whole passage this way →

What Exodus requires of the husband

Here is what the law requires from the husband.

Exodus 21 begins with a woman who entered a household as a servant and was then made a wife. If the man later takes another wife, three things still belong to the first in full. He cannot make the new household affordable by pushing her back toward servitude. If he withholds what the law names, she leaves free and owes him nothing.

That does not make every institution in the passage good. The setting includes servitude, and a law can restrain harm without endorsing the whole setting. What the verse establishes is more specific: her standing as a wife continues, her claims remain enforceable, and the man may not make her carry the cost of his decision.

She’er

Food or sustenance. The exact scope is debated, but the man may not reduce what she receives.

Kesut

A covering or garment. Some interpreters include shelter, but clothing is the word’s direct sense.

Onah

Her marital rights, including companionship and intimacy. The ancient readings treat this as something owed to her.

If he withholds them

She leaves free and owes nothing. Marriage changed her standing, and the law does not let him turn a wife back into a servant.

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