The seventh-year release of debts
1At the end of every seven years you are to grant a release. 2This is how the release is to work: every creditor is to release what he has lent his neighbor. He must not press his neighbor or his brother for payment, because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. 3You may press a foreigner for payment, but you must release whatever your brother owes you. 4There need be no poor among you, for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land Yahweh your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance — 5if only you carefully obey the voice of Yahweh your God, keeping and doing this whole commandment I am giving you today. 6For Yahweh your God will bless you as he has promised: you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations, but none will rule over you. 7If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers within any of your gates in the land Yahweh your God is giving you, do not harden your heart or close your hand against your poor brother. 8Instead, open your hand freely to him and lend him whatever he needs, enough for his lack. 9Be careful that no worthless thought enters your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look grudgingly on your poor brother and give him nothing. He may cry out to Yahweh against you, and it will be counted a sin against you. 10Give to him freely, and do not let your heart begrudge it when you give, for because of this Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in everything your hand undertakes. 11The poor will never cease to be in the land; that is why I command you: open your hand freely to your brother, to the poor and needy in your land.
Freeing a Hebrew servant
12If your fellow Hebrew, man or woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free from you. 13And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. 14Supply him generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress; give him as Yahweh your God has blessed you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today. 16But if he says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, 17then take an awl and pierce his ear through to the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant. 18Do not consider it a hardship to set him free, for he has served you six years — worth twice the wages of a hired hand — and Yahweh your God will bless you in everything you do.
The firstborn of the herd and flock
19Set apart for Yahweh your God every firstborn male born in your herd and flock. Do not put the firstborn of your ox to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your flock. 20Eat it, you and your household, year by year before Yahweh your God, in the place Yahweh chooses. 21But if it has a defect — if it is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw — you must not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. 22Eat it within your own gates; the unclean and the clean may eat it alike, as they would gazelle or deer. 23Only you must not eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
