Deuteronomy 15

1. “At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.

2. And this is the manner of the release: Every man who has a loan to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not exact it from his neighbor or from his brother because it is called the LORD’S release.

3. You may exact it from a foreigner, but your hand shall release that which is yours with your brother,

4. Except when there shall be no poor among you. For the LORD shall greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it,

5. Only if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God to be careful to observe all these commandments which I command you today.

6. For the LORD your God blesses you as He promised you. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

7. If there is among you a poor man of one of your brothers inside any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother.

8. But you shall open your hand wide to him, and shall surely lend him enough for his need, that which he lacks.

9. Beware that there is not a thought in your wicked heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye may be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing. And he may cry to the LORD against you, and it is sin to you.

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

11. For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command you saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy, in your land.’

12. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

13. And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty.

14. You shall liberally bestow upon him from your flock, and from your grain floor, and from your winepress; with what the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

15. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this word today.

16. And if he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you’ because he loves you and your house since it has been good for him with you;

17. Then you shall take an awl and put it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. And also to your female servant you shall do so.

18. It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away from you free, for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. And the LORD your God shall bless you in all that you do.

19. All the firstborn males that come from your herd and from your flock, you shall set apart to the LORD your God.You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

20. You shall eat before the LORD your God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, you and your household.

21. And if there is a blemish in it, lame, or blindness, or any ill blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

22. You shall eat it inside your gates. The one who is unclean and the one who is clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the deer.

23. Only you shall not eat the blood of it. You shall pour it on the ground like water.”