15
1 Every seven years you shall make a release. 2 And this is the ordinance of the release: you shall remit every private debt which your neighbor owes you, and you shall not ask payment of it from your brother; for it has been called a release to the Lord your God. 3 Of a stranger you shall ask again whatever he has of yours, but to your brother you shall remit his debt to you. 4 For thus there shall not be a poor person in the midst of you, for the Lord your God will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you by inheritance, that you should inherit it. 5 And if you⌃ shall indeed listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep and do all these commandments, as many as I charge you this day, 6 (for the Lord your God has blessed you in the way of which he spoke to you,) then you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. 7 And if there shall be in the midst of you a poor man of your brethren in one of your cities in the land, which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, neither shall you by any means close up your hand from your brother who is in lack. 8 You shall surely open your hands to him, and shall lend to him as much as he wants according to his need. 9 Take heed to yourself that there be not a secret thing in your heart, an iniquity, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, draws near; and your eye shall be evil to your brother that is in lack, and you shall not give to him, and he shall cry against you to the Lord, and there shall be great sin in you. 10 You shall surely give to him, and you shall lend him as much as he wants, according as he is in need; and you shall not grudge in your heart as you give to him, because on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your works, and in all things on which you shall lay your hand. 11 For the poor shall not fail off your land, therefore I charge you to do this thing, saying, You shall surely open your hands to your poor brother, and to him that is distressed upon your land. 12 And if your brother or sister, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, be sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall send him out free from you. 13 And when you shall send him out free from you, you shall not send him out empty. 14 You shall give him provision for the way from your flock, and from your corn, and from your wine; as the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from thence; therefore I charge you to do this thing. 16 And if he should say to you, I will not go out from you, because he continues to love you and your house, because he is well with you; 17 then you shall take an awl, and bore his ear through to the door, and he shall be your servant for ever; and in like manner shall you do to your maidservant. 18 It shall not seem hard to you when they are sent out free from you, because your servant has served you six years according to the annual hire of a hireling; so the Lord your God shall bless you in all things whatever you may do. 19 Every firstborn that shall be born among your kine and your sheep, you shall sanctify the males to the Lord your God; you shall not work with your firstborn calf, and you shall not shear the firstborn of your sheep. 20 You shall eat it before the Lord year by year in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, you and your house. 21 And if there be in it a blemish, if it be lame or blind, an evil blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 You shall eat it in your cities; the unclean in you and the clean shall eat it in like manner, as the doe or the stag. 23 Only you⌃ shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.