Deuteronomy 15:1

Douay-Rheims Bible

In the seventh year thou shalt make a remission,

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.

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

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.

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 In the seventh year thou shalt make a remission, ² Which shall be celebrated in this order. He to whom any thing is owing from his friend or neighbour or brother, cannot demand it again, because it is the year of remission of the Lord. ³ Of the foreigner or stranger thou mayst exact it: of thy countryman and neighbour thou shalt not have power to demand it again. ⁴ And there shall be no poor nor beggar among you: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land which he will give thee in possession. ⁵ Yet so if thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep all things that he hath ordained, and which I command thee this day, he will bless thee, as he hath promised. ⁶ Thou shalt lend to many nations, and thou shalt borrow of no man. Thou shalt have dominion over very many nations, and no one shall have dominion over thee. ⁷ If one of thy brethren that dwelleth within thy gates of thy city in the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, come to poverty: thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor close thy hand, ⁸ But shalt open it to the poor man, thou shalt lend him, that which thou perceivest he hath need of. ⁹ Beware lest perhaps a wicked thought steal in upon thee, and thou say in thy heart: The seventh year of remission draweth nigh; and thou turn away thy eyes from thy poor brother, denying to lend him that which he asketh: lest he cry against thee to the Lord, and it become a sin unto thee. ¹⁰ But thou shalt give to him: neither shalt thou do any thing craftily in relieving his necessities: that the Lord thy God may bless thee at all times, and in all things to which thou shalt put thy 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
Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.

Genesis 15:2
And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.

Genesis 15:3
And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant born in my house, shall be my heir.

Genesis 15:4
And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying:He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.

Genesis 15:5
And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.

Genesis 15:6
Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.

Genesis 15:10
And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other: but the birds he divided not.

Genesis 15:14
But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.

Genesis 15:16
But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.

Genesis 15:17
And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace, and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.

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