The Year for Canceling Debts
1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because theLord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.
4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land theLordyour God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
5 if only you fully obey theLordyour God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
6 For theLordyour God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land theLordyour God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.
8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to theLordagainst you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this theLordyour God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
Freeing Servants
12 If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free.
13 And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed.
14 Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as theLordyour God has blessed you.
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and theLordyour God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.
16 But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you,
17 then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.
18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And theLordyour God will bless you in everything you do.
The Firstborn Animals
19 Set apart for theLordyour God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks. Do not put the firstborn of your cows to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep.
20 Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of theLordyour God at the place he will choose.
21 If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to theLordyour God.
22 You are to eat it in your own towns. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer.
23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/DEU/15-18929b8cb6cacb59697909003ca66dfc.mp3?version_id=111—