Deuteronomy 15:1

Bible in Basic English

At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

Hebrew Names Version
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.

King James Version
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

Lexham English Bible
"At the end of seven years you shall grant a remission of debt.

English Standard Version
"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.

New Century Version
At the end of every seven years, you must tell those who owe you anything that they do not have to pay you back.

New English Translation
At the end of every seven years you must declare a cancellation of debts.

Amplified Bible
"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release (remission, pardon) from debt.

New American Standard Bible
"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.

Geneva Bible (1587)
At the terme of seuen yeeres thou shalt make a freedome.

Legacy Standard Bible
"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.

Contemporary English Version
Moses said: Every seven years you must announce, "The Lord says loans do not need to be paid back." Then if you have loaned money to another Israelite, you can no longer ask for payment.

Complete Jewish Bible
(vi) "At the end of every seven years you are to have a sh'mittah.

Darby Translation
At the end of seven years thou shalt make a release,

Easy-to-Read Version
"At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts.

George Lamsa Translation
AT the end of every seven years you shall make a release.

Good News Translation
"At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money.

Literal Translation
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
In the seueth yeare shalt thou make a Fre yeare. This is ye maner of the Fre yeare.

American Standard Version
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
At the terme of seuen yeres, thou shalt make a freedome.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

King James Version (1611)
At the end of euery seuen yeeres thou shalt make a release.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Every seven years thou shalt make a release.

English Revised Version
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

Berean Standard Bible
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
In the seuenthe yeer thou schalt make remyssioun,

Young's Literal Translation
`At the end of seven years thou dost make a release,

Update Bible Version
At the end of every seven year period you shall make a release.

Webster's Bible Translation
At the end of [every] seven years thou shalt make a release.

World English Bible
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.

New King James Version
Exodus 21:1-11; Leviticus 25:1-7">[xr] "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.

New Living Translation
"At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money.

New Life Bible
"At the end of every seven years you must do away with debts that are owed.

New Revised Standard
Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
At the end of seven years, shalt thou make a release.

Douay-Rheims Bible
In the seventh year thou shalt make a remission,

Revised Standard Version
"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.

THE MESSAGE
At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled— God says so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.

Contextual Overview

¹ At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt. ² This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord. ³ A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go; ⁴ But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage; ⁵ If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today. ⁶ For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers. ⁷ If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him; ⁸ But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of. ⁹ And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you. ¹⁰ But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Deuteronomy 31:10, Exodus 21:2, Exodus 23:10, Exodus 23:11, Leviticus 25:2-4, Isaiah 61:1-3, Jeremiah 36:8-18, Luke 4:18, Luke 4:19

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 15:12 - General Nehemiah 10:31 - the exaction

Cross-References

Genesis 15:1
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.

Genesis 15:2
And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me.

Genesis 15:3
And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.

Genesis 15:4
Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you.

Genesis 15:5
And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.

Genesis 15:6
And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

Genesis 15:10
All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.

Genesis 15:14
But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth.

Genesis 15:16
And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.

Genesis 15:17
Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. Not of servants, for they were not to be dismissed from their service until they had served six years, as is directed to in a following law; for if they were to be set free whenever a sabbatical year came, they might be discharged when they had not served more than a year, or than half a year, or than a month or two. Indeed when the year of jubilee intervened, they were released be it at what time it would; but not in a sabbatical year, which was a year of release of debts, as the following verses show, as well as there was, then a rest of the land from tillage, Leviticus 25:2. Now this was done at the end or extremity of every seventh year; not at the latter end or extremity of it, for if the debt of a poor man might be exacted of him in the year, and until the end of it, it would not in this respect have been a sabbatical year, or a year of rest and quiet; but this was done at the first extremity of it, at the beginning of it, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech observe; though Maimonides b asserts it to be after the seven years were ended; for he says,

"the seventh year releaseth not monies but at the end of it,''

according to Deuteronomy 15:1 that as in Deuteronomy 31:10 after seven years is meant, so the release of monies is after seven years.

b Hilchot Shemittah & Yobel, c. 9. sect. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The year of release is no doubt identical with the sabbatical year of the earlier legislation (Exodus 23:10 ff, and Leviticus 25:2 ff), the command of the older legislation being here amplified. The release was probably for the year, not total and final, and had reference only to loans lent because of poverty (compare Deuteronomy 15:4, Deuteronomy 15:7). Yet even so the law was found to be too stringent for the avarice of the people, because it was one of those which the rabbis “made of none effect by their traditions.”

Deuteronomy 15:2

Because it is called the Lord’s release - Render, because proclamation has been made of the Lord’s release. The verb is impersonal, and implies (compare Deuteronomy 31:10) that “the solemnity of the year of release” has been publicly announced.

Deuteronomy 15:3

The foreigner would not be bound by the restriction of the sabbatical year, and therefore would have no claim to its special remissions and privileges. He could earn his usual income in the seventh as in other years, and therefore is not exonerated from liability to discharge a debt anymore in the one than the others.

Deuteronomy 15:4

There is no inconsistency between this and Deuteronomy 15:11. The meaning seems simply to be, “Thou must release the debt for the year, except when there be no poor person concerned, a contingency which may happen, for the Lord shall greatly bless thee.” The general object of these precepts, as also of the year of Jubilee and the laws respecting inheritance, is to prevent the total ruin of a needy person, and his disappearance from the families of Israel by the sale of his patrimony.

Deuteronomy 15:9

literally: “Beware that there be not in thy heart a word which is worthlessness” (compare Deuteronomy 13:13 note).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER XV

The Sabbatical year of release, 1.

The manner in which this release shall take place, 2-5.

Of lending to the poor, and the disposition in which it should

be done, 6-11.

Of the Hebrew servant who has served six years, and who shall be

dismissed well furnished, 12-15.

The ceremony of boring the ear, when the servant wishes to

continue with his master, 16-18.

Of the firstlings of the flock and herd, 19, 20.

Nothing shall be offered that has any blemish, 21.

The sacrifice to be eaten both by the clean and unclean, except

the blood, which is never to be eaten, but poured out upon the

ground, 22, 23.

NOTES ON CHAP. XV

Verse Deuteronomy 15:1. At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release — For an explanation of many things in this chapter, see the notes on Exodus 21:0 and Exodus 23:0, and Leviticus 25:0