Deuteronomy 15:7-18

English Standard Version

⁷ “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(A)you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, ⁸ but ^(B)you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. ⁹ Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your ^(C)eye look grudgingly^[a] on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he ^(D)cry to the Lord against you, and ^(E)you be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ You shall give to him freely, and ^(F)your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because ^(G)for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. ¹¹ For ^(H)there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ^(I)‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

^12 (J)“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold^[b] to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ¹³ And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. ¹⁴ You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. ^(K)As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. ^15 (L)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. ¹⁶ But ^(M)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, ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave^[c] forever. And to your female slave^[d] you shall do the same. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired worker he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.