Deuteronomy 15
The Sabbatical Year and Debt Release 1–6
Generosity to the Poor 7–11
Release of Hebrew Servants 12–18
The Law of the Firstborn Animals 19–23
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Deuteronomy 15
Verse 1
a release — Shemittah, from a verb meaning to let drop. It comes ‘at the end of every seven years’, and Moses places it at ‘the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles’ (Deut 31:10). The seventh year was already a rest for the land (Ex 23:10–11; Lev 25:2–4); here it also lets debts drop.
Verse 2
the LORD’S release — The creditor ‘shall release it’ and ‘shall not exact it’ of his neighbour or brother. The release is proclaimed in the LORD’s name. The people later bound themselves to keep it, promising to ‘leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt’ (Neh 10:31).
Verse 3
a foreigner — The nokri is a foreigner, outside the covenant community, and from him the debt could be collected. The same line is drawn at Deut 23:20: ‘Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury.’ The release is owed to the brother.
Verse 4
no poor among you — The verse sets the aim that no poor remain in the land, because ‘the LORD shall greatly bless thee’. The blessing is tied to obedience in v.5. Acts 4:34 records a community where ‘neither was there any among them that lacked’, with those who owned property selling it for the common need.
Verse 5
carefully hearken — The Hebrew doubles the verb shama’, ‘hearing, thou shalt hear’, which the KJV renders ‘diligently’ in Deut 28:1: ‘if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God’. The promise of v.4 holds ‘only if’ the people keep ‘all these commandments’.
Verse 6
thou shalt lend unto many nations — ‘Lend’ (’abat) is to lend against a pledge. The same two promises appear in the blessings at Deut 28:12, ‘thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow’, and its opposite is stated in Prov 22:7, ‘the borrower is servant to the lender’. Solomon ‘reigned over all kingdoms’ from the river to Egypt (1 Kings 4:21).
Verse 7
thou shalt not harden thine heart — ‘Harden’ is amats, to make firm or stubborn, and ‘shut’ is qaphats, to draw together, as a hand does when closed. The apostle asks of the one who ‘shutteth up his bowels of compassion’ from a brother in need, ‘how dwelleth the love of God in him?’ (1 John 3:17).
Verse 9
thy wicked heart — The Hebrew word is beliyya’al, the word of ‘children of Belial’ in 13:13: a thought that refuses a loan because ‘the year of release, is at hand’ is called worthless. The poor brother may ‘cry unto the LORD against thee’ (see Ex 22:23), and ‘thine eye be evil’ is the phrase of Matt 20:15.
Verse 11
the poor shall never cease — This stands beside v.4. Since the poor remain in the land, the command is to ‘open thine hand wide’, the verb doubled for emphasis, as v.8 also says. Christ’s ‘the poor always ye have with you’ (John 12:8) echoes the verse, and Mark 14:7 adds, ‘whensoever ye will ye may do them good’.
Verse 12
an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman — The Hebrew servant is ‘sold’ to a master and serves ‘six years’. The law repeats Ex 21:2, ‘in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing’, and extends it explicitly to the woman. Jeremiah reproaches the people for not keeping it: ‘at the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew’ (Jer 34:14).
Verse 13
thou shalt not let him go away empty — ‘Empty’ is reqam. Israel itself had been promised in Egypt, ‘when ye go, ye shall not go empty’ (Ex 3:21). Verse 14 gives the measure of the outfit: ‘liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress’.
Verse 15
thou wast a bondman — The ground of the law is the memory of Egypt and the verb padah, to ransom: the LORD ‘redeemed thee’. The same remembrance supports the sabbath in Deut 5:15, ‘thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt’, so the release of a servant follows the pattern of Israel’s own deliverance.
Verse 17
an aul… through his ear unto the door — The servant who chooses to stay has his ear bored and ‘he shall be thy servant for ever’ (olam), the rule of Ex 21:6 in which the master brings him ‘unto the door post’. Here the maidservant is named: ‘unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise’, and v.16 gives the reason: ‘he loveth thee and thine house’.
Verse 18
a double hired servant — The word for ‘hired servant’ is sakir, a worker paid by wage, and ‘double’ is mishneh. The master is told that the six years of service have been worth that much to him, so the release is not to ‘seem hard’, and the LORD ‘shall bless thee in all that thou doest’.
Verse 19
the firstling males — The firstborn of the herd and flock belong to the LORD: ‘Sanctify unto me all the firstborn… it is mine’ (Ex 13:2). Deuteronomy adds that the firstling of the bullock is not to work and the firstling of the sheep is not to be sheared, and v.20 sets it to be eaten ‘before the LORD… year by year’ at the chosen place.
Verse 21
any blemish — ‘Blemish’ is mum, and the examples are lame, blind or any ‘ill blemish’. The rule echoes Lev 22:20, ‘whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer’, and Deut 17:1. Malachi reproves priests and people who offered ‘the blind for sacrifice’ and ‘the lame and sick’ (Mal 1:8).
Verse 22
the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike — A blemished firstling is not sacrificed, so it is eaten at home ‘within thy gates’, ‘as the roebuck, and as the hart’. These are the words of Deut 12:15, where common meat may be eaten by any, and the rule against blood in v.23 applies here too.