If is the third use of the word ʾim, mentioned at verse 2. His master means “his owner,” or “lord” (ʾadon). Gives him a wife, literally “gives to him a woman,” refers to a situation where the master assigns one of his slave girls to marry the unmarried slave. Some languages will express this as “gives him a woman slave for him to take as his wife.” And she bears him sons or daughters means that children are born to the slave by that wife. The text specifies both sons and daughters.

The wife and her children (Good News Translation: “the woman and her children”) uses the feminine her, relating the children to the mother rather than to the father. Shall be her master’s is literally “she will be to her master [ʾadon],” but it means that “the woman and her children belong to the master” (Good News Translation). New American Bible has “shall remain the master’s property.” Translator’s Old Testament adds “shall still belong to her master.” And he shall go out alone refers to the male slave, the father of the children. Under this law, therefore, the father who became a freed slave had no claim to either his wife or his children if their mother was already a slave of the master. The final sentence may be also expressed as “Only the man himself has the right to be freed.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .