The Year for Canceling Debts

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.

You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.

Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.

Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.

Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles,