Deuteronomy 15

¹At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission.

²And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not press his neighbor and his brother, because remission has been proclaimed to the Lord.

³Of the foreigner you may exact payment, but whatever is yours with your brother your hand shall release.

⁴Except that there will be no needy one among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess.

⁵only if you diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep and to do all this commandment that I am commanding you today.

⁶For the Lord your God will have blessed you as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you yourself shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

⁷If there is among you a needy person, one of your brothers, in one of your towns in your land that the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shall you close your hand against your needy brother.

⁸but you shall surely open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he lacks.

⁹Watch yourself lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is drawing near, and you look with a grudging eye upon your needy brother and give him nothing, and he cries out to the Lord against you, and it becomes a sin in you.

¹⁰You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be bad when you give to him, for because of this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to.

¹¹For the needy will not cease from the midst of the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying: you shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your poor and to your needy in your land.

¹²If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall send him free from you.

¹³And when you send him free from you, you shall not send him away empty-handed.

¹⁴You shall furnish him liberally from your flock, and from your threshing floor, and from your wine press -- as the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

¹⁵And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding you this thing today.

¹⁶And if he says to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your house, because he is well off with you,

¹⁷then you shall take an awl and put it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And also to your female slave you shall do likewise.

¹⁸It shall not seem hard in your sight when you send him away free from you, for at double the wages of a hired servant he has served you six years; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

¹⁹Every firstborn male that is born in your herd and your flock you shall consecrate to the Lord, your God; you shall not work with the firstborn of your ox, nor shall you shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰Before the Lord your God you shall eat it year by year at the place that the Lord will choose, you and your household.

²¹But if there is a blemish in it -- lame or blind, any bad blemish -- you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.

²²Within your gates you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, like the gazelle and like the deer.

²³Only its blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.