Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
the Third Week after Easter
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

New Revised Standard

Deuteronomy 15:13

And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out 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,
Legacy Standard Bible
When you let him go to be free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.
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.
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 a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free. 13 And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. 14 Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today. 16 But if he says to you, "I will not go out from you," because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, 17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. You shall do the same with regard to your female slave. 18 Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that 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 the Lord came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."
Genesis 15:2
But Abram said, "O Lord God , what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
Genesis 15:6
And he believed the Lord ; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:7
Then he said to him, "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess."
Genesis 15:8
But he said, "O Lord God , how am I to know that I shall possess it?"
Genesis 15:11
And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Genesis 15:12
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
Genesis 15:13
Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years;
Genesis 17:8
And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."
Exodus 1:11
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh.

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