1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbour; he shall not exact it of his neighbour and his brother; because theLord’S release hath been proclaimed.
3 Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it: but whatsoever of thine is with thy brother thine hand shall release.
4 Howbeit there shall be no poor with thee; (for theLordwill surely bless thee in the land which theLordthy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it;)
5 if only thou diligently hearken unto the voice of theLordthy God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command thee this day.
6 For theLordthy God will bless thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.
7 If there be with thee a poor man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in thy land which theLordthy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
8 but thou shalt surely open thine hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his needin thatwhich he wanteth.
9 Beware that there be not a base thought in thine heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou give him nought; and he cry unto theLordagainst thee, and it be sin unto thee.
10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing theLordthy God shall bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt surely open thine hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land.
12 If thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
13 And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty:
14 thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress: as theLordthy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and theLordthy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing today.
16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go out from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee;
17 then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.
18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou lettest him go free from thee; for to the double of the hire of an hireling hath he served thee six years: and theLordthy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
19 All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto theLordthy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thine ox, nor shear the firstling of thy flock.
20 Thou shalt eat it before theLordthy God year by year in the place which theLordshall choose, thou and thy household.
21 And if it have any blemish,as if it belame or blind, any ill blemish whatsoever, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto theLordthy God.
22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the cleanshall eat italike, as the gazelle, and as the hart.
23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it out upon the ground as water.