Selling girls is an unfortunate reality for many parents in the developing world who have no choice but to give their daughters away in exchange for financial gain. We are selling our daughter in marriage. If you have a daughter and she is beautiful and good, we will be pleased to marry her to you. You will not be foolish or gullible. We are offering her at the right price. We have raised her well, educated her well and would be willing to provide one dowry (not two).
Selling your daughter is a topic many people ignore or avoid for a variety of reasons. But the subject of human trafficking and prostitution poses a threat to the young girls who are desperate for money or the affection of their religious leaders. These verses in the Bible are intended to guide Christian men on how they should treat their daughters, whether they’re married, dating, or contemplating marriage with another man. Here are some Bible verses about selling your daughter. My hope is that this list will give you some insight and encourage you in your walk with the Lord.
If you have a daughter, it’s understandable to be concerned about selling her into slavery. Is this permitted in the Bible? When is it allowed and what are the rules and guidelines? Let’s take a look at some Bible verses about selling your daughter. If you’re trying to sell your daughter, it’s important to know what the Bible says about it. But before that, let’s look at the context of selling daughters in the Bible.
Bible Verses About Selling Your Daughter
Throughout the Bible, there are verses that discuss the topic of selling daughters. While it may seem shocking in today’s society, it’s important to understand the context in which these verses were written. Let’s take a look at some of these verses:
1. Exodus 21:7-8
“If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. 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.” – Exodus 21:7-8
2. Leviticus 25:44-46
“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.” – Leviticus 25:44-46
3. Deuteronomy 15:12-1
“If any of your people – Hebrew men or women – sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free.” – Deuteronomy 15:12-13
These verses highlight the cultural practices of the time and provide guidelines for the treatment of servants and slaves. It’s important to remember the historical context and the changes in societal norms that have occurred since these verses were written.
Ephesians 6:5 ESV / 53 helpful votes
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,
Exodus 21:16 ESV / 53 helpful votes
“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
Exodus 21:7-11 ESV / 53 helpful votes
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
Exodus 21:26-27 ESV / 50 helpful votes
“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
Exodus 21:7 ESV / 50 helpful votes
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
Leviticus 25:44-46 ESV / 49 helpful votes
As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
Exodus 21:1-36 ESV / 48 helpful votes
“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ …
Leviticus 25:39 ESV / 46 helpful votes
“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:
Exodus 21:2 ESV / 46 helpful votes
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
Colossians 4:1 ESV / 45 helpful votes
Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Exodus 21:20-21 ESV / 44 helpful votes
“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
Galatians 3:28 ESV / 40 helpful votes
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Deuteronomy 24:7 ESV / 38 helpful votes
“If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
1 Peter 2:18 ESV / 37 helpful votes
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
Deuteronomy 23:15 ESV / 35 helpful votes
“You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.
Titus 2:9-10 ESV / 32 helpful votes
Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
Exodus 21:20 ESV / 32 helpful votes
“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.
Deuteronomy 23:15-16 ESV / 31 helpful votes
“You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.
Exodus 21:32 ESV / 31 helpful votes
If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
Deuteronomy 15:12-18 ESV / 29 helpful votes
“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, …
Deuteronomy 15:12 ESV / 28 helpful votes
“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
Leviticus 25:1-55 ESV / 28 helpful votes
The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. …
1 Timothy 6:1-2 ESV / 27 helpful votes
Let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things.
Leviticus 25:44 ESV / 25 helpful votes
As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you.
Exodus 21:2-6 ESV / 25 helpful votes
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
Philemon 1:16 ESV / 24 helpful votes
No longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
Ephesians 6:9 ESV / 24 helpful votes
Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
1 Timothy 6:1 ESV / 23 helpful votes
Let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.
Colossians 3:22 ESV / 22 helpful votes
Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
1 Timothy 1:10 ESV / 21 helpful votes
The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
Ephesians 6:5-9 ESV / 21 helpful votes
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
Exodus 21:8 ESV / 21 helpful votes
If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her.
Galatians 5:1 ESV / 20 helpful votes
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14 ESV / 20 helpful votes
“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
Exodus 21:10 ESV / 20 helpful votes
If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
1 Corinthians 7:21 ESV / 19 helpful votes
Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)
Luke 4:18 ESV / 19 helpful votes
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
2 Kings 4:1 ESV / 19 helpful votes
Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
Deuteronomy 15:16 ESV / 19 helpful votes
But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you,
Leviticus 19:20 ESV / 19 helpful votes
“If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free;
Luke 12:47-48 ESV / 18 helpful votes
And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Nehemiah 5:5 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
Exodus 21:11 ESV / 18 helpful votes
And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
Leviticus 22:11 ESV / 17 helpful votes
But if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food.
Exodus 21:6 ESV / 17 helpful votes
Then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
Exodus 20:10 ESV / 17 helpful votes
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
1 Peter 2:16 ESV / 16 helpful votes
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Proverbs 22:16 ESV / 15 helpful votes
Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.
Leviticus 25:43 ESV / 15 helpful votes
You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God.
Exodus 21:9 ESV / 15 helpful votes
If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter.
Exodus 21:3 ESV / 15 helpful votes
If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.
Titus 2:9 ESV / 14 helpful votes
Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,
Colossians 3:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Deuteronomy 20:14 ESV / 14 helpful votes
But the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
Leviticus 25:46 ESV / 14 helpful votes
You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
Romans 1:1 ESV / 13 helpful votes
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Luke 12:47 ESV / 13 helpful votes
And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.
Jeremiah 34:9 ESV / 13 helpful votes
That everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.
Deuteronomy 15:17 ESV / 13 helpful votes
Then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same.
Exodus 22:2-3 ESV / 13 helpful votes
If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him, but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
Exodus 21:1 ESV / 13 helpful votes
“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.
1 Corinthians 7:21-23 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
Proverbs 30:10 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
Exodus 20:17 ESV / 12 helpful votes
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Exodus 20:1-26 ESV / 12 helpful votes
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, …
John 3:16 ESV / 11 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Leviticus 25:44-45 ESV / 11 helpful votes
As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property.
Leviticus 19:18 ESV / 11 helpful votes
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Exodus 22:3 ESV / 11 helpful votes
But if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.