Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
The Year of Release
Deuteronomy 15:1-23
1 At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. · WEB
Debts end every seventh year, and the law legislates against the calculation a lender would make in the sixth.
Every seventh year, debts are canceled. Every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor Deuteronomy 15:2.
The consequence is obvious to anyone who has lent money, and the law names it before a lender can. Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing Deuteronomy 15:9.
That is a remarkable piece of legislation. It anticipates the rational response to its own provision — that credit dries up as the release approaches — and forbids the calculation itself. The man refused is told to cry to Yahweh against you, and the refusal is called sin.
Two statements about poverty sit in the same chapter and appear to contradict each other. There will be no poor with you Deuteronomy 15:4. And: the poor will never cease out of the land Deuteronomy 15:11.
The first has a condition attached in the next verse — if only you diligently listen. It describes what the arrangement would produce if it were kept. The second describes what will actually happen, and both are true at once: the system is capable of ending destitution, and it will not be kept, so the command to open the hand stands permanently. The Lord quotes the second half when the same tension arises again Mark 14:7.
The manner of giving is specified as carefully as the amount. You shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand Deuteronomy 15:7. Lend sufficient for his need, which he lacks Deuteronomy 15:8 — the measure is the man's need, not the lender's convenience. And your heart shall not be grieved when you give Deuteronomy 15:10. Reluctant help is contemplated and rejected.
The release of slaves follows the same seven-year rhythm, and the striking clause is about the leaving.
When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty Deuteronomy 15:13. He is to be furnished liberally from the flock, the threshing floor and the wine press Deuteronomy 15:14 — sent out with capital rather than merely released into poverty, which is what makes freedom mean anything.
The reason is the book's usual one: you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you Deuteronomy 15:15. Israel left Egypt loaded with goods, and is told to send its own servants out the same way.
The closing note answers an objection nobody voiced. It should not seem hard, because six years of service was worth double the value of a hired hand Deuteronomy 15:18.
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