Chapter Fifteen

The law of the sabbatical year on the remission of debts. — The release of Hebrew slaves. Repetition of the law on the firstborn of livestock.

Deuteronomy 15:1. At the end of seven years you shall grant a remission. Deuteronomy 15:2. The remission consists in this: every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release the debt and shall not exact it from his neighbor or from his brother, for remission has been proclaimed for the sake of the Lord your God; Deuteronomy 15:3. from a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother, you shall release. Deuteronomy 15:4. There need be no poor person among you, for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to take possession of, Deuteronomy 15:5. if only you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God and be diligent to observe all these commandments that I am commanding you today; Deuteronomy 15:6. for the Lord your God will bless you, as he has said to you, and you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. Deuteronomy 15:7. If there is among you a poor person, any of your brothers, in any of your settlements in your land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and do not shut your hand before your poor brother, Deuteronomy 15:8. but open your hand to him and give him a loan, according to his need, whatever he lacks; Deuteronomy 15:9. Take care lest there be a wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,” and your eye be hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; for he will cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a great sin on your part; Deuteronomy 15:10. Give to him, and lend to him as much as he asks and as much as he needs, and when you give to him, your heart must not be troubled, for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in everything your hands do; Deuteronomy 15:11. for the poor will always be in the land; therefore I am commanding you: open your hand to your brother, to the poor and needy in your land. These supplement the provisions concerning the sabbatical year set forth in Exod 23:11-12 and Lev 25:17. The fourth verse in its content connects directly to the second. Verses 7-11 follow after the fourth. The seventh year, the year of rest for the land, was at the same time a rest for the poor person burdened with debt. “In the seventh year grant a remission,” the law says. “The remission consists in this: every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release the debt and shall not exact it from his neighbor or from his brother, for (in that year) remission has been proclaimed for the sake of the Lord.” Michaelis, Saalschütz, Oehler, Pastoret, Winer, Smith, and others understand these words to mean that the “remission” consisted not in an absolute termination of the creditor’s right to demand from the debtor the sum lent, but only in a suspension of that right during the seventh year, after which the creditor again entered into his rights and could again demand from the debtor the sum borrowed. In the very name of this year “schemittah,” says Saalschütz, there is no concept of a full remission of debts, but only of a temporary setting aside of the right to collect them. Particularly notable, he adds, in this respect is the fact that the verb schamat — “to set aside” — refers not to the debt but to the hand that demands the debt. In the sense of a temporary setting aside, schemittah is also used with regard to the land when speaking of leaving it without cultivation in the seventh year. Other scholars, on the contrary, insist that in the seventh year debts were completely forgiven, and in support of this they cite the words: “If there is among you a poor person, any of your brothers, do not harden your heart and do not shut your hand before your poor brother, but open your hand to him and give him a loan, according to his need, whatever he lacks. Take care lest there be a wicked thought in your heart: the seventh year, the year of remission, is near, and your eye becomes hostile toward your poor brother and you give him nothing; for he will cry to the Lord and there will be a great sin on your part.” The legislator’s insistent persuasion to those of means not to refuse the poor person the loan he requests in view of the approaching seventh year points, they say, as clearly as possible to the true meaning of the law on the absolute forgiveness of debts. Taking the position of scholars in the second category, one must suppose that the operation of the year of remission extended to all types of debt obligations in general, but did not extend to such items as were held by creditors not as pledges (a pledge must be returned with the cancellation of the debt) but as partial payment of a debt. The law of debt cancellation extended only to the unpaid balance. The effect of the law on debt forgiveness in the seventh year does not extend to foreigners, since they are outside the sphere of the socio-economic order of the chosen community.

Deuteronomy 15:12. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you for six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you; Deuteronomy 15:13. and when you let him go free from you, do not let him go empty-handed, Deuteronomy 15:14. but furnish him generously from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your wine press; give him from what the Lord your God has blessed you with: Deuteronomy 15:15. and remember that you also were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. The sale of a Hebrew into slavery to a fellow tribesman (Exod 21:2) or his sale into slavery by law (Exod 22:3) had the consequence for him of six years of service to the buyer, with the right to release from the state of slavery in the seventh year of service. Just as after six days of work the weekly Sabbath and after six years of working the land the yearly Sabbath were to (serving for the rest and restoration of the laboring man and the productive earth) turn the eyes of the Hebrew toward the Creator and Providential ruler of the world, so too the release of the slave after six years of bondage was to serve (both for the master and for the slave) as a reminder that they (regardless of socio-economic circumstances) were still equal members of the kingdom of Jehovah. In the case where a Hebrew became a slave less than six years before the jubilee year, the six-year term of service was not obligatory for him: in the jubilee year he would become free (Lev 25:1). A different character is taken on by the Mosaic legislation with respect to an Israelite who entered into slavery to a non-Israelite living among the Jewish people. In that case, the Hebrew slave lost the right to release in the seventh year. He became free no earlier than the jubilee year. Before the jubilee year he could gain his freedom only by ransom. As compensation for six years of labor, as redress for the temporary socio-economic inequality between the Hebrew master and the former slave from among the Hebrews, and finally in memory of their own liberation from Egyptian slavery, the Hebrew master was obligated at the slave’s release to provide him with all manner of property (vv. 13-15).

Deuteronomy 15:16. But if he says to you, “I will not go away from you, because I love you and your household,” because it is good for him with you, Deuteronomy 15:17. then take an awl and pierce his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Do the same with your female servant. Cf. Exod 21:5-6. A legal sanction was likely being given to one of the customs practiced in the ancient world.

Deuteronomy 15:18. Do not consider it a hardship when you release him from you, for he has served you six years, earning double the wages of a hired hand; and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. This verse in its content connects directly to Deut 15:14.

Deuteronomy 15:19. Every firstborn male that is born of your herd and of your flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God: do not work the firstborn of your ox, and do not shear the firstborn of your flock; Deuteronomy 15:20. before the Lord your God you shall eat it every year, you and your household, at the place that the Lord your God will choose; Deuteronomy 15:21. but if it has a defect — lameness or blindness or any other defect — do not offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God, Deuteronomy 15:22. but eat it within your settlements; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer; Cf. Exod 13:1-16, Num 18:15-18. The sacrifice of the firstborn of the livestock is likened to a peace offering. After the priestly portion was given, the rest was eaten by the offerers “before the Lord” (Vlastov, Sacred Chronicle).

Deuteronomy 15:23. Only do not eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water. See note on Deut 12:15-16.