Deuteronomy 15:1-23
15 “Once in seven years you shall make a remission.
2 And this is the definition of the remission: ‘every creditor to remit his claim that he holds over his neighbor’; he is not to exact anything from his neighbor and brother, because a remission on Jehovah’s account is proclaimed.
3 From a foreigner you may exact, but what you have in your brother’s hands you shall remit your claim on.
4 There will not be any poor man among you, though, because Jehovah will bless you in the country Jehovah is giving to you as an estate to take possession of,
5 if only you obey your God Jehovah, taking care to live up to all this commandment that I am enjoining on you today,
6 because your God Jehovah will have blessed you as he promised you and you shall lend to many nations and not borrow yourselves, and rule over many nations and not be ruled over by them.
7 “When there is among you a poor man, any one of your brothers in any of your localities in your country that your God Jehovah is giving you, you shall not be obdurate and shut your hand against your poor brother,
8 but open your hand to him and lend him the amount he is in want of.
9 Beware of harboring a vicious suggestion, ‘The seventh year, the year of the remission, is near,’ and begrudging your poor brother the help and not giving it to him, and letting him cry to Jehovah against you, which would be sin in you;
10 you shall give to him and not feel badly over giving to him, because on account of this your God Jehovah will bless you in all your doings and undertakings.
11 For never will a poor man cease to be found in the country: for this reason I give you the command ‘You shall open your hand to your brother, your downtrodden and your poor, in your country.’
12 * “When your Hebrew brother or sister is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free.
13 And when you let him go free you shall not send him off empty-handed:
14 you shall garnish him out of your flocks and your threshing and your winepress; as your God Jehovah has blessed you you shall give to him.
15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and your God Jehovah redeemed you; that is why I give you this commandment today.
16 “And when he says to you ‘I will not go out from you’ because he likes you and your house because he is well off with you,
17 you shall take an awl and run it through his ear into the door, and he shall be permanently your slave; and you shall do the same with your maid too.
18 “You shall not think it hard when you let him go free, because for six years his service to you has been twice a hired man’s pay; and your God Jehovah will bless you in everything you do.
19 “Every firstborn male that is born in your flocks and herds you shall consecrate to your God Jehovah: you shall not work your firstborn bull nor shear your firstborn sheep;
20 before your God Jehovah you shall eat it annually at the place Jehovah chooses, you and your family.
21 And when there is a defect in it, lame or blind, any bad defect, you shall not sacrifice it to your God Jehovah,
22 you shall eat it in your locality, the unclean and the clean together, like the gazelle and the deer;
23 only its blood you shall not eat, you shall let it run out on the ground like water.
Footnotes
^ 15:12 Or sells himself
