Deuteronomy — Chapter 15

Every seventh yearaEvery seventh year Lit. “After a period of seven years”; cf. 14.28. you shall practice remission of debts.

This shall be the nature of the remission: all creditors shall remit the due that they claim from their fellow Israelites; they shall not dun their fellow Israelites—their kindred—for the remission proclaimed is of GOD.

You may dun the foreigner; but you must remit whatever is due you from your kindred.

There shall be no needy among you—since the ETERNAL your God will bless you in the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you as a hereditary portion—

if only you heed the ETERNAL your God and take care to keep all this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day.

For the ETERNAL your God will bless you as promised: you will extend loans to many nations, but require none yourself; you will dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you.

If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kindred in any of your settlements in the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kindred.

Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need.

Beware lest you harbor the base thought, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching,” so that you are mean and give nothing to your needy kindred—who will cry out to GOD against you, and you will incur guilt.

Give readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the ETERNAL your God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings.

For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kindred in your land.

If any fellow Hebrew, man or woman, is sold to you, they shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall set them free.

When you set them free, do not let them go empty-handed:

Furnish them out of the flock, threshing floor, and vat, with which the ETERNAL your God has blessed you.

Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the ETERNAL your God redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.

But should they say to you, “I do not want to leave you”—for they love you and your household and are happy with you—

you shall take an awl and put it through their ear into the door, and they shall become your slave in perpetuity. Do this even with your female slave.

When you do set them free, do not feel aggrieved; for in the six years you have been given double the service of a hired worker. Moreover, the ETERNAL your God will bless you in all you do.

YoubYou See note at 12.5. shall consecrate to the ETERNAL your God all male firstlings that are born in your herd and in your flock: you must not work your firstling ox or shear your firstling sheep.

You and your household shall eat it annually before the ETERNAL your God in the place that GOD will choose.

But if it has a defect, lameness or blindness, any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the ETERNAL your God.

Eat it in your settlements, the impure among you no less than the pure, just like the gazelle and the deer.

Only you must not partake of its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.