Deuteronomy 15
15
Loans
(Leviticus 25.1-7)
Moses said:
1-2Every seven years you must announce, “The Lord says loans do not need to be paid back.” Then if you have loaned money to another Israelite, you can no longer ask for payment.#15.1,2 The Lord says … no longer ask for payment: Or “ ‘The Lord says loans do not need to be paid back this year.’ Then if you have loaned money to another Israelite, you cannot ask for payment until the next year.” 3This law applies only to loans you have made to other Israelites. Foreigners will still have to pay back what you have loaned them.
4-6No one in Israel should ever be poor. The Lord your God is giving you this land, and he has promised to make you very successful, if you obey his laws and teachings that I'm giving you today. You will lend money to many nations, but you won't have to borrow. You will rule many nations, but they won't rule you.
7 #
Lv 25.35. After the Lord your God gives land to each of you, there may be poor Israelites in the town where you live. If there are, then don't be mean and selfish with your money. 8Instead, be kind and lend them what they need. 9Be careful! Don't say to yourself, “Soon it will be the seventh year, and then I won't be able to get my money back.” It would be horrible for you to think that way and to be so selfish that you refuse to help the poor. They are your relatives, and if you don't help them, they may ask the Lord to decide whether you have done wrong. And he will say that you are guilty. 10You should be happy to give the poor what they need, because then the Lord will make you successful in everything you do.
11 #
Mt 26.11; Mk 14.7; Jn 12.8. There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy. That's why I am commanding you to be generous with them.
Setting Slaves Free
(Exodus 21.1-11)
Moses said to Israel:
12 #
Lv 25.39-46. If any of you buy Israelites as slaves, you must set them free after six years. 13And don't just tell them they are free to leave— 14give them sheep and goats and a good supply of grain and wine. The more the Lord has given you, the more you should give them. 15I am commanding you to obey the Lord as a reminder that you were slaves in Egypt before he set you free. 16But one of your slaves may say, “I love you and your family, and I would be better off staying with you, so please don't make me leave.” 17Take the slave to the door of your house and push a sharp metal rod through one earlobe and into the door. Such slaves will belong to you for life, whether they are men or women.
18Don't complain when you have to set a slave free. After all, you got six years of service at half the cost of hiring someone to do the work.#15.18 six years … work: Or “six years of service, and it cost you no more than if you had hired someone to do the work”; or “six years of service, for what you would have had to pay a worker for two years.”
First-Born Animals
(Leviticus 27.26,27; Numbers 18.15-18)
Moses said to Israel:
19 #
Ex 13.12. If the first-born animal of a cow or sheep or goat is a male, it must be given to the Lord. Don't put first-born cattle to work or cut wool from first-born sheep. 20Instead, each year you must take the first-born of these animals to the place where the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped. You and your family will sacrifice them to the Lord and then eat them as part of a sacred meal.
21But if the animal is lame or blind or has something else wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22You can butcher it where you live, and eat it just like the meat of a deer or gazelle that you kill while hunting. Even those people who are unclean and unfit for worship can have some. 23#Gn 9.4; Lv 7.26,27; 17.10-14; 19.26; Dt 12.5-19,23,24. But you must never eat the blood of an animal—let it drain out on the ground.
Currently Selected:
Deuteronomy 15: CEV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
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.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). All rights reserved.