Deuteronomy 15:9-23

15:9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude ¹  be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite ²  and you do not lend ³  him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. ⁴  15:10 You must by all means lend ⁵  to him and not be upset by doing it, ⁶  for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt. 15:11 There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open ⁷  your hand to your fellow Israelites ⁸  who are needy and poor in your land.

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ⁹  – whether male or female ¹⁰  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ¹¹  go free. ¹²  15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously ¹³  from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress – as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them. 15:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing today. 15:16 However, if the servant ¹⁴  says to you, “I do not want to leave ¹⁵  you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, 15:17 you shall take an awl and pierce a hole through his ear to the door. ¹⁶  Then he will become your servant permanently (this applies to your female servant as well). 15:18 You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice ¹⁷  the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Giving God the Best

15:19 You must set apart ¹⁸  for the Lord your God every firstborn male born to your herds and flocks. You must not work the firstborn of your bulls or shear the firstborn of your flocks. 15:20 You and your household must eat them annually before the Lord your God in the place he ¹⁹  chooses. 15:21 If they have any kind of blemish – lameness, blindness, or anything else ²⁰  – you may not offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. 15:22 You may eat it in your villages, ²¹  whether you are ritually impure or clean, ²²  just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex. 15:23 However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.

[15:9]  ¹ tn Heb “your eye.”

[15:9]  ² tn Heb “your needy brother.”

[15:9]  ³ tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).

[15:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”

[15:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “by all means.”

[15:10]  ⁶ tc Heb “your heart must not be grieved in giving to him.” The LXX and Orig add, “you shall surely lend to him sufficient for his need,” a suggestion based on the same basic idea in v. 8. Such slavish adherence to stock phrases is without warrant in most cases, and certainly here.

[15:11]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “make sure.”

[15:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “your brother.”

[15:12]  ⁹ sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.

[15:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

[15:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.

[15:12]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

[15:14]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “generously.”

[15:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the indentured servant introduced in v. 12) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “go out from.” The imperfect verbal form indicates the desire of the subject here.

[15:17]  ¹⁶ sn When the bondslave’s ear was drilled through to the door, the door in question was that of the master’s house. In effect, the bondslave is declaring his undying and lifelong loyalty to his creditor. The scar (or even hole) in the earlobe would testify to the community that the slave had surrendered independence and personal rights. This may be what Paul had in mind when he said “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:17).

[15:18]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh, “twice”) could mean “equivalent to” (cf. NRSV) or, more likely, “double” (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). The idea is that a hired worker would put in only so many hours per day whereas a bondslave was available around the clock.

[15:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “sanctify” (תַּקְדִּישׁ, taqdish), that is, put to use on behalf of the Lord.

[15:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” The translation uses a pronoun for stylistic reasons. See note on “he” in 15:4.

[15:21]  ²⁰ tn Heb “any evil blemish”; NASB “any (+ other NAB, TEV) serious defect.”

[15:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “in your gates.”

[15:22]  ²² tc The LXX adds ἐν σοί (en soi, “among you”) to make clear that the antecedent is the people and not the animals. That is, the people, whether ritually purified or not, may eat such defective animals.