Deuteronomy 15
Big idea: Every seventh year, debts are cancelled. The chapter states an ideal and a reality in consecutive breaths — however there will be no poor with you, if only you diligently listen — and then, eleven verses later, for the poor will never cease out of the land. Both are true, and the command that sits between them is about the heart: don't harden your heart or shut your hand; beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, the seventh year is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother. Then the release of slaves in the seventh year, with an instruction that goes far beyond legal minimum: you shall not let him go empty — furnish him liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor and your wine press.
Chapter 15 releases debts and slaves. Chapter 16 sets the feasts at which everyone — including the freed and the foreign — is commanded to rejoice.
15:1–11 — Don't harden your heart
A debt cancellation every seven years, and the passage is unusually honest about how people will react to it. It anticipates the calculation — the seventh year is NEAR, so don't lend — names it a WICKED THOUGHT, and rules on it. And it holds two sentences together that look contradictory: there will be no poor among you (v4) and the poor will never cease (v11).
1 At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. 2 This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother, because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. 3 Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. 4 However there will be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess) 5 if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today. 6 For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. 7 If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; 8 but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks. 9 Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. 10 You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. 11 For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.
15:12–18 — You shall not let him go empty
Release for a Hebrew slave after six years, and the instruction that makes it more than manumission: you shall NOT LET HIM GO EMPTY. Furnish him liberally out of flock, threshing floor and winepress — a leaving settlement, so freedom comes with the means to use it. The reason given is autobiographical: you were a slave, and you were redeemed.
12 If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. 14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. 16 It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you, 17 then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. 18 It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for he has been double the value of a hired hand as he served you six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.
15:19–23 — The firstborn of your herd
The firstborn belong to God, and the practical consequence is stated as two prohibitions: no work from the firstborn ox, no wool from the firstborn sheep. You may not get any use out of it first. And a defective animal is not sacrificed but is not wasted either — it goes back to the ordinary table under chapter 12's rules.
19 You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. 21 If it has any defect—is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. 22 You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer. 23 Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).