Exodus 21:7

7. Sell his daughter This might occur because of extreme poverty and want . Nehemiah 5:5. The verses following show that this kind of a sale was contemplated as essentially a betrothal; but they also serve to exhibit the inferior position in which women were held as compared with men . They might be sold by their parents for maidservants, and so take the place of concubines in the family of the purchaser . But this statute was attended by the following provisions: (1 . ) A maidservant, thus acquired, was not to obtain her freedom in the seventh year, like the men-servants of Exodus 21:2. (2 . ) She could not be sold into a strange nation . (3 . ) She might be redeemed, either by her father, were he able, or by another Hebrew who desired her for a concubine . (4 . ) Her master might betroth her to his son, and in that case she was to be treated by him as a daughter. (5.) Her rights as a concubine were not to be changed by his taking another woman into the same relation. (6.) If her rights were withheld she was entitled to freedom. On the whole these laws, though far below the standard of Christian ethics, were mild and tolerant for the time.