Deuteronomy 15
GOD’S WORD Translation
The Seventh-Year Celebration
15 At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. 2 This is what you will do: If you’ve made a loan, don’t collect payment on the debt your neighbor still owes you. Don’t demand that your neighbor or relative pay you, because the ⌞time⌟ for suspending payments on debts has been proclaimed in the Lord’s honor. 3 You may demand that a foreigner pay, but don’t collect payment on the debt another Israelite still owes you. 4 In any case, there shouldn’t be any poor people among you, because the Lord your God will certainly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own possession. 5 He will bless you only if you listen carefully to the Lord your God and faithfully obey all these commands I’m giving you today. 6 The Lord your God will bless you, as he promised. You will make loans to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any of them. You will rule many nations, but no nation will ever rule you.
7 This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 8 Be generous to these poor people, and freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hard-hearted and tight-fisted with them.[a]
9 When the seventh year—the year when payments on debts are canceled—is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to the Lord about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. 10 Be sure to give to them without any hesitation. When you do this, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you work for and set out to do. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. That’s why I command you to be generous to other Israelites who are poor and needy.
12 Whenever Hebrew men or women are sold to you as slaves, they will be your slaves for six years. In the seventh year you must let them go free. 13 But when you let them go, don’t send them away empty-handed. 14 Generously give them provisions—sheep from your flocks, grain from your threshing floor,[b] and wine from your winepress. Be as generous to them as the Lord your God has been to you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God freed you. That’s why I’m giving you this command today.
16 But suppose a male slave says to you, “I don’t want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is happy with you. 17 Then take an awl and pierce it through his ear lobe into a door, and he will be your slave for life. Do the same to a female slave ⌞if she doesn’t want to leave⌟.
18 If you have to let your slave go free, it won’t be a hardship for you. It would have cost you twice as much to hire someone to do the same work for those six years. Besides, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
Setting Aside Firstborn Males for God
19 You must dedicate every firstborn male from your herds and flocks to the Lord your God. Never use a firstborn ox for work, and never shear a firstborn sheep. 20 Every year you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God in the place the Lord will choose. 21 But if an animal is lame or blind or has any other serious defect—never sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 Eat it in your city. Clean and unclean [c] people may eat them together as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer. 23 But never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water.
Footnotes
- 15:8 This sentence has been moved from verse 7 to express the complex Hebrew sentence structure more clearly in English.
- 15:14 A threshing floor is an outdoor area where grain is separated from its husks.
- 15:22 “Clean ” refers to anything that is presentable to God. “Unclean ” refers to anything that is not presentable to God.
Deuteronomy 15
King James Version
15 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release.
3 Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;
4 Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:
5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
6 For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.
10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
12 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.
16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee;
17 Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.
18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
19 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
20 Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God year by year in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou and thy household.
21 And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God.
22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart.
23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.
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