Deuteronomy 15
1 “At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release of debts.
2 This is the rule for the release: every creditor shall cancel the loan he made to his neighbor. He shall not demand payment from his neighbor or his brother, because a release has been proclaimed in honor of the LORD.
3 You may demand payment from a foreigner, but whatever you have lent to your brother, your hand shall release.
4 Yet there need be no poor among you, because the LORD your God will surely bless you in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,
5 if only you truly listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping and carrying out this whole command that I am giving you today.
6 For the LORD your God has blessed 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 there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.
8 Instead, open your hand wide to him and lend him whatever he needs for his need.
9 Be careful that this wicked thought does not arise in your heart: ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is near,’ and that you look with ill will on your poor brother and give him nothing. Then he will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you give to him. Because of this, the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you undertake.
11 For there will never cease to be poor people in the land. That is why I command you: open your hand wide to your brother, to the poor and needy in your land.
12 If your fellow Hebrew, man or woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free.”
13 “When you set that person free, do not send them away empty-handed.
14 Give generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Give to them from what the LORD your God has blessed you with.
15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I am giving you this command today.
16 But the servant may say to you, ‘I do not want to leave your household,’ because he loves you and your household, and because he is well off with you.
17 Then take an awl and pierce his ear against the door, and he will be your servant for life. Do the same with your female servant.
18 Do not consider it a hardship to set him free, because he has served you for six years, worth twice the wages of a hired worker. And the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.
19 Every firstborn male born among your cattle and your flock you shall set apart for the LORD your God. Do not work with the firstborn of your ox, or shear the firstborn of your flock.
20 Year after year, you and your household shall eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD chooses.
21 But if it has a defect—if it is lame or blind, or has any serious defect—you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
22 Eat it in your towns; the unclean and the clean may eat it together, as they would a gazelle or a deer.
23 Only you shall not eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.”
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