Lectionary Calendar
Friday, December 26th, 2025
the First Day after Christmas
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Legacy Standard Bible

Deuteronomy 15:13

When you let him go to be free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Beneficence;   Fraternity;   Liberality;   Poor;   Sabbatic Year;   Thompson Chain Reference - Benevolence;   Liberality-Parsimony;   Social Duties;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Liberality;   Servants;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Servant;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Sabbatical year;   Slave;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Amos, Theology of;   Slave, Slavery;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Debtor;   Freedom;   Poor;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Law;   Loan;   Poor;   Slave;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Economic Life;   Freedom;   Loan;   Slave/servant;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Crimes and Punishments;   Debt;   Deuteronomy;   Leviticus;   Poverty;   Sabbatical Year;   Slave, Slavery;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Law in the Old Testament;   Oded;   Poverty;   Sabbatical Year;   Slave;   Son;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Agrarian Laws;   Commandments, the 613;   Slaves and Slavery;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When you set him free, do not send him away empty-handed.
Hebrew Names Version
When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty:
King James Version
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
Lexham English Bible
And when you send him out free from you, you shall not send him away empty-handed.
English Standard Version
And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.
New Century Version
When you let slaves go, don't send them away without anything.
New English Translation
If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed.
Amplified Bible
"When you set him free, you shall not let him go away empty-handed.
New American Standard Bible
"And when you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him goe away emptie,
Contemporary English Version
And don't just tell them they are free to leave—
Complete Jewish Bible
Moreover, when you set him free, don't let him leave empty-handed;
Darby Translation
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty;
Easy-to-Read Version
But when you let your slave go free, don't send him away with nothing.
George Lamsa Translation
And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed;
Good News Translation
When you set them free, do not send them away empty-handed.
Literal Translation
And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And wha thou deliuerest him fre, thou shalt not let him go from the emptye,
American Standard Version
And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty:
Bible in Basic English
And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And when thou sendest hym out free from thee, thou shalt not let hym go away emptie:
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty;
King James Version (1611)
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away emptie:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And when thou shalt send him out free from thee, thou shalt not send him out empty.
English Revised Version
And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty:
Berean Standard Bible
And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thou schalt not suffre hym go awey voide, to whom thou hast yyue fredom;
Young's Literal Translation
And when thou dost send him away free from thee, thou dost not send him away empty;
Update Bible Version
And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty:
Webster's Bible Translation
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him depart empty:
World English Bible
When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty:
New King James Version
And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed;
New Living Translation
"When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed.
New Life Bible
When you set him free, do not send him away with nothing.
New Revised Standard
And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and when thou lettest him go out free, from thee, thou shalt not let him go out empty:
Douay-Rheims Bible
And when thou sendest him out free, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
Revised Standard Version
And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed;
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"When you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.

Contextual Overview

12"If your brother, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall let him go to be free from you. 13When you let him go to be free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. 14You shall furnish him generously from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as Yahweh your God has blessed you. 15And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding you this today. 16And it will be that, if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you; 17then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant. 18"It shall not seem hard in your sight when you let him go to be free from you, for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man; so Yahweh your God will bless you in whatever you do.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

This is a most humane and merciful addition to the law in Exodus 21:2-11, enforced upon the Israelites by the consideration of their Egyptian bondage. As a faithful servant has made no property for himself while honestly serving his master, so now, when he quits his service, he has nothing to begin the world with except what the kindness of his master may bestow upon him as a remuneration for his zeal and fidelity. Though what was to be bestowed upon servants is not fixed, yet they were to be liberally supplied - Deuteronomy 15:14. Genesis 31:42, Exodus 3:21, Leviticus 25:42-44, Proverbs 3:27, Proverbs 3:28, Jeremiah 22:13, Malachi 3:5, Colossians 4:1

Cross-References

Genesis 15:1
After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying,"Do not fear, Abram,I am a shield to you;Your reward shall be very great."
Genesis 15:2
And Abram said, "O Lord Yahweh, what will You give me, as I go on being childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
Genesis 15:6
Then he believed in Yahweh; and He counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:7
And He said to him, "I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it."
Genesis 15:8
And he said, "O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?"
Genesis 15:11
Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
Genesis 15:12
Now it happened that when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
Genesis 15:13
Then God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
Genesis 17:8
And I will give to you and to your seed after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
Exodus 1:11
So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labors. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when thou sendest him out free from thee,.... When he discharged him from his servitude, and made him a free man:

thou shall not let him go away empty; without anything to support himself, or to put himself in a way of business; he having in the time of his servitude worked entirely for his master, and so could not have got and saved anything for himself.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 15:13. Thou shalt not let him go away empty — Because during the time he served thee, he made no property for himself, having been always honest towards thee; and now when he leaves thee, he has nothing to begin the world with.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile