The Seventh Year
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.
And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not press his neighbor or his brother, for the LORD’s release has been proclaimed.
The foreigner you may press; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release.
Yet there will be no poor 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 it —
if only you surely listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep to do all this commandment that I am commanding you today.
For the LORD your God will bless you, as he has spoken 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.
Generosity in Lending and Giving
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brothers, within any of your gates in your land that the LORD your God is giving you — you shall not harden your heart, and you shall not shut your hand against your poor brother.
But you shall surely open your hand to him, and surely lend him enough for his need, whatever he lacks.
Take care for yourself, so that there is no worthless thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” and your eye is evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing — and he cries out against you to the LORD, and it is sin in you.
You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him — for because of this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in every undertaking of your hand.
For the poor 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 afflicted and to your poor, in your land.
Hebrew Servants
If 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 out free from you.
And when you send him out free from you, you shall not send him out empty-handed.
You shall surely furnish him from your flock, and from your threshing floor, and from your winepress; as the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God ransomed you; therefore I am commanding you this thing today.
And it shall be, if he says to you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because it is good for him with you,
then you shall take an awl and put it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave also you shall do the same.
It shall not be hard in your eyes when you send him out free from you — for at double the wage of a hired worker he has served you six years — and the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.
Firstborn Animals
Every firstborn that is born in your herd and in your flock, the male, you shall consecrate to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your ox, and you shall not shear the firstborn of your flock.
Before the LORD your God you shall eat it, year by year, in the place that the LORD chooses — you and your household.
And if there is a defect in it — lame or blind, any bad defect — you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
Within your gates you shall eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as the gazelle and as the deer.
Only its blood you shall not eat; on the earth you shall pour it out like water.