The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 15

¹At the end of every seven years, you are to cancel debts. ²Do it this way: every creditor is to release what he has lent to his neighbor. He mustn't force [payment from] his neighbor and his brother, because Yahweh's release has been proclaimed. ³You may force [payment from] a foreigner; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand is to release. ⁴However there are to be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess) ⁵if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God's voice, to observe to do all these commandments which I command you today. ⁶For 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 won't rule over you. ⁷If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God is giving you, don't harden your heart, or close your hand from your poor brother; ⁸but you must surely open your hand to him, and surely lend him sufficient for his needs, whatever he lacks. ⁹Beware that there isn't a worthless thought in your heart, saying, "The seventh year (the year of release) is near;" and your eye becomes evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing. Then he cries out to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. ¹⁰You must surely give, and your heart must not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this that Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. ¹¹For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you saying, "You must surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land." ¹²If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let him go free from you. ¹³When you let him go free from you, don't let him go empty-handed. ¹⁴Furnish him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. [In the same way that] Yahweh your God has blessed you, you are to give. ¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. ¹⁶If he tells you, "I will not leave you", because he loves you and your house, since he is [doing] well with you, ¹⁷then take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he'll be your servant forever. Do the same to your female servant as well. ¹⁸It mustn't 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 for six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. ¹⁹Dedicate to Yahweh your God all the firstborn males that are born to your herd and your flock. Do no work with the firstborn of your herd. Don't shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰You and your household are to eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh chooses. ²¹If it has any blemish, [if it is] lame or blind, or has any blemish whatever, don't sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. ²²Eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean [are to eat it] alike, like the gazelle and the deer. ²³Only don't eat its blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.