Deuteronomy 15-16

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.

Three Major Festivals

16 Honor the Lord your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib. In the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt at night. ² Slaughter an animal from your flock or herd as the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God. Do this at the place where the Lord will choose for his name to live. ³ Never eat leavened bread with the meat from this sacrifice. Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread at this festival. (It is the bread of misery because you left Egypt in a hurry.) Eat this bread so that, as long as you live, you will remember the day you left Egypt. ⁴ There should be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Never leave until morning any of the meat you slaughter on the evening of the first day.

⁵ You’re not allowed to slaughter the animals for Passover in any of the cities the Lord your God is giving you. ⁶ Instead, slaughter your animals for Passover in the place where the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. Do this in the evening as the sun goes down. This is the same time you did it when you left Egypt. ⁷ Cook the meat, and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents. ⁸ For six days eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day hold a religious assembly dedicated to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work that day.

⁹ Count seven weeks from the time you start harvesting grain. ¹⁰ Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God. Bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. ¹¹ Enjoy yourselves in the presence of the Lord your God along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites who live in your cities, the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. Enjoy yourselves at the place the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and obey these laws carefully.

¹³ After you have gathered the grain from your threshing floor ^[d] and made your wine, celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days. ¹⁴ Enjoy yourselves at the festival along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities. ¹⁵ For seven days you will celebrate this festival dedicated to the Lord your God in the place he will choose. You will enjoy yourselves, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all your work.

¹⁶ Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. But no one may come into the presence of the Lord without an offering. ¹⁷ Each man must bring a gift in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given him.

Administering Justice

¹⁸ Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every city that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Never pervert justice. Instead, be impartial. Never take a bribe, because bribes blind wise people and deny justice to those who are in the right. ²⁰ Strive for nothing but justice so that you will live and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ When you build the altar for the Lord your God, never plant beside it any tree dedicated to the goddess Asherah. ²² Never set up a sacred stone. These are things the Lord your God hates.