Deuteronomy 15

1 “Every seventh year you are to make a release. 2 And this is the rule of the release: you are to let go every private debt your neighbor owes you, and you are not to demand payment of it from your brother; for it has been called a release to the Lord your God. [a] 3 From a foreigner you may demand back whatever of yours he has, but to your brother you are to let the debt go. 4 That way there will not be a poor person among you — for the Lord your God will surely bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, for you to hold — [b] 5 if you will really listen to the voice of the Lord your God and be careful to do all these commands I am charging you with today. 6 For the Lord your God has blessed you, as he told you he would; and you will lend to many nations and will not borrow, and you will rule over many nations and they will not rule over you.

7 And if there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in one of your towns in the land the Lord your God is giving you, you are not to harden your heart, and you are not to shut your hand against your brother who is in need. 8 You are certainly to open your hands to him and lend him as much as he wants, according to his need. 9 Watch yourself, that there is no hidden thing in your heart, a wicked thought, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is near’ — and your eye is evil toward your brother in need, and you give him nothing, and he cries out to the Lord against you, and there is great sin in you. 10 You are certainly to give to him, and lend him as much as he wants, according to his need; and you are not to be grudging in your heart when you give to him — because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in everything you put your hand to. 11 For the poor will not disappear from your land; that is why I am charging you with this thing and saying: You are certainly to open your hands to your poor brother, and to the one in hardship in your land.

12 And if your brother or sister, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he is to serve you six years, and in the seventh year you are to send him away free. 13 And when you send him away free, you are not to send him away empty-handed. 14 You are to give him supplies for the road out of your flock and out of your grain and out of your wine; as the Lord your God has blessed you, so you are to give to him. 15 And you are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God ransomed you from there; that is why I am charging you with this thing. 16 And if he says to you, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he has come to love you and your household, since he is well off with you, 17 then you are to take an awl and put it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant forever; and you are to do the same with your female servant. 18 It is not to seem hard to you when you send them away free, because your servant has served you six years for the yearly wage of a hired man; and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. [c]

19 Every firstborn born among your cattle and your sheep — you are to set apart the males to the Lord your God. You are not to put your firstborn calf to work, and you are not to shear the firstborn of your sheep. 20 You are to eat it before the Lord year by year, in the place the Lord your God chooses, you and your household. 21 And if there is a defect in it — if it is lame or blind, or any bad defect at all — you are not to sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 You are to eat it in your own towns; the unclean among you and the clean may eat it alike, as they eat the gazelle and the deer. 23 Only you are not to eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.”