Deuteronomy 15
15
Year of canceled debts
1Every seventh year you must cancel all debts. 2This is how the cancellation is to be handled: Creditors will forgive the loans of their fellow Israelites. They won’t demand repayment from their neighbors or their relatives because the LORD’s year of debt cancellation has been announced. 3You are allowed to demand payment from foreigners, but whatever is owed you from your fellow Israelites you must forgive. 4Of course there won’t be any poor persons among you because the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, 5but only if you carefully obey the LORD your God’s voice, by carefully doing every bit of this commandment that I’m giving you right now. 6Once the LORD your God has blessed you, exactly as he said he would, you will end up lending to many different peoples but won’t need to borrow a thing. You will dominate many different peoples, but they won’t dominate you.
7Now if there are some poor persons among you, say one of your fellow Israelites in one of your cities in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, don’t be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your poor fellow Israelites. 8To the contrary! Open your hand wide to them. You must generously lend them whatever they need. 9But watch yourself! Make sure no wicked thought crosses your mind, such as, The seventh year is coming—the year of debt cancellation—so that you resent your poor fellow Israelites and don’t give them anything. If you do that, they will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 10No, give generously to needy persons. Don’t resent giving to them because it is this very thing that will lead to the LORD your God’s blessing you in all you do and work at. 11Poor persons will never disappear from the earth. That’s why I’m giving you this command: you must open your hand generously to your fellow Israelites, to the needy among you, and to the poor who live with you in your land.
12If any of your fellow Hebrews, male or female, sell themselves into your service, they can work for you for six years, but in the seventh year you must set them free from your service. 13Furthermore, when you set them free from your service, you must not let them go empty-handed. 14Instead, provide for them fully from your flock, food, and wine. You must give to them from that with which the LORD your God has blessed you. 15Remember how each of you was a slave in Egypt and how the LORD your God saved you. That’s why I am commanding you to do this right now. (16Now if your male servant says to you: “I don’t want to leave your service” because he loves you and your family and because life is good for him in your service, 17then you may take a needle and pierce his ear with it into the doorframe. From that point on, he will be your permanent servant. Do the same thing for female servants.) 18Don’t consider it a hardship to set these servants free from your service, because they worked for you for six years—at a value double that of a paid worker. The LORD your God will bless you in everything that you do.
19You must devote every oldest male animal from your herds or flocks to the LORD your God. Don’t plow with your oldest male ox and don’t shear your oldest male sheep. 20Year after year, you and your family are allowed to eat these animals in the presence of the LORD your God, in the location the LORD selects. 21But if there is any defect in it, lameness, blindness, any flaw whatsoever, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22You are allowed to eat those in your own cities, whether you are polluted or purified, just as you would eat gazelle or deer. 23Even so, don’t consume any blood. Pour it out on the ground, like water.
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Deuteronomy 15: CEB
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Deḇarim (Deuteronomy) 15
15
1“At the end of every seven years you make a release of debts.
2“And this is the word of the release: Every creditor is to release what he has loaned to his neighbour, he does not require it of his neighbour or his brother, because it is called the release of יהוה.
3“Of a foreigner you could require it, but your hand is to release whatever is owed by your brother.
4“Only, there should be no poor among you. For יהוה does greatly bless you in the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you to possess as an inheritance,
5only if you diligently obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard to do all these commands which I am commanding you today.
6“For יהוה your Elohim shall bless you as He promised you. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And you shall rule over many nations, but they do not rule over you.
7“When there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, within any of the gates in your land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you, do not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,
8for you shall certainly open your hand to him and certainly lend him enough for his need, whatever he needs.
9“Be on guard lest there be a thought of Beliya‛al in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is near,’ and your eye is evil against your poor brother and you give him naught. And he shall cry out to יהוה against you, and it shall be a sin in you.
10“You shall certainly give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this reason יהוה your Elohim does bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.
11Because the poor one does not cease from the land. Therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall certainly open your hand to your brother, to your poor and to your needy one, in your land.’ ”
12“When your brother is sold to you, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, and shall serve you six years, then let him go free from you in the seventh year.
13“And when you send him away free from you, let him not go away empty-handed.
14“You shall richly supply him from your flock, and from your threshing-floor, and from your winepress. With that which יהוה has blessed you with, give to him.
15“And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Mitsrayim, and יהוה your Elohim ransomed you. Therefore I am commanding you this word today.
16“And it shall be, when he says to you, ‘I do not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, because it is good for him with you,
17then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Do the same to your female servant.
18“Let it not be hard in your eyes when you send him away free from you, for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. And יהוה your Elohim shall bless you in all that you do.
19“Set apart to יהוה your Elohim all the first-born males that come from your herd and your flock. Do no work with the first-born of your herd, nor shear the first-born of your flock.
20“You and your household are to eat it before יהוה your Elohim year by year in the place which יהוה chooses.
21“But when there is any defect in it, lame or blind, or has any evil defect, do not slaughter it to יהוה your Elohim.
22“Eat it within your gates – the unclean and the clean alike – as the gazelle, and as the deer.
23“Only, do not eat its blood, pour it on the ground like water.
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