Study Desk

"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.

"From a foreigner you may require it, but your hand shall forgive whatever of yours is with your brother.

"If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;

"Be careful that there is no mean-spirited thought in your heart, such as, 'The seventh year, the year of release of debts, is near,' and your eye is malicious toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry out to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you.

"If your fellow countryman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.

"And you are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding this of you today.

"It shall not seem difficult for you when you set him free, because he has given you six years with double the service of a hired worker; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.

"But if it has any impairment, such as a limp, or blindness, or any serious impairment, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

"You shall eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.

"You shall not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry), so that you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

"For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festive assembly to the LORD your God; you shall do no work on it.

"Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a voluntary offering of your hand in a proportional amount, which you shall give just as the LORD your God blesses you;

"You shall also remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful and comply with these statutes.

"For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

"Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths; and they are not to appear before the LORD empty-handed.

"You shall not distort justice, you shall not show partiality; and you shall not accept a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous.

"And you shall not set up for yourself a memorial stone, which the LORD your God hates.

"You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the LORD your God.

"If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by violating His covenant,

"If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.