Dual Panel1At the end of every seventh year you must make a remission of debts.
2This is how it is to be made: everyone who holds a pledge shall return the pledge of the person indebted to him. He must not press a fellow-countryman for repayment, for the LORD's year of remission has been declared.
3You may press foreigners; but if it is a fellow-countryman that holds anything of yours, you must renounce all claim on it.
4There will never be any poor among you if only you obey the LORD your God by carefully keeping these commandments which I lay upon you this day; for the LORD your God will bless you with great prosperity in the land which he is giving you to occupy as your holding.
5(15:4)
6When the LORD your God blesses you, as he promised, you will lend to people of many nations, but you yourselves will borrow from none; you will rule many nations, but none will rule you.
7When in any of your settlements in the land which the LORD your God is giving you one of your fellow-countrymen becomes poor, do not be hard-hearted or close-fisted towards him in his need.
8Be open-handed towards him and lend him on pledge as much as he needs.
9See that you do not harbour the villainous thought that the seventh year, the year of remission, is near, and look askance at your needy countryman and give him nothing. If you do, he will appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
10Give freely to him and do not begrudge him your bounty, because it is for this very bounty that the LORD your God will bless you in everything that you do or undertake.
11The poor will always be with you in your land, and that is why I command you to be open-handed towards any of your countrymen there who are in poverty and need.
12Should a fellow-Hebrew, be it a man or a woman, sell himself to you as a slave, he is to serve you for six years. In the seventh year you must set him free,
13and when you set him free, do not let him go empty-handed.
14Give to him lavishly from your flock, from your threshing-floor and your winepress. Be generous to him, as the LORD your God has blessed you.
15Bear in mind that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.
16If, however, a slave is content to be with you and says, “I shall not leave you; I love you and your family,”
17then take an awl and pierce through his ear to the door, and he will be your slave for life. Treat a slave-girl in the same way.
18Do not resent it when you have to set him free, for his six years' service to you has been worth twice the wage of a hired man. Then the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.
19You must dedicate to the LORD your God every male firstborn of your herds and flocks. You must not plough with the firstborn of your cattle or shear the firstborn of your sheep.
20Year by year you and your household must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God, in the place which the LORD will choose.
21If any animal has a defect, if it is lame or blind or has any other serious defect, you may not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
22Eat it in your settlements; both clean and unclean alike may eat it as they would the meat of gazelle or deer.
23But on no account may you partake of its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.