[1] "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. [2] And
this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has
lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother,
because the LORD's release has been proclaimed. [3] Of a foreigner you may
exact it; but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall
release. [4] But there will be no poor among you (for the LORD will bless
you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to
possess), [5] if only you will obey the voice of the LORD your God, being
careful to do all this commandment which I command you this day. [6] For
the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to
many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many
nations, but they shall not rule over you. [7] "If there is among you a
poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which
the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your
hand against your poor brother, [8] but you shall open your hand to him,
and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. [9] Take heed
lest there be a base thought in your heart, and you say, `The seventh year,
the year of release is near,' and your eye be hostile to your poor brother,
and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin
in you. [10] You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be
grudging when you give to him; because for this the LORD your God will
bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. [11] For the poor
will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open
wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.
[12] "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he
shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go
free from you. [13] And when you let him go free from you, you shall not
let him go empty-handed; [14] you shall furnish him liberally out of your
flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press; as the LORD
your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. [15] You shall remember
that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed
you; therefore I command you this today. [16] But if he says to you, `I
will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since
he fares well with you, [17] then you shall take an awl, and thrust it
through his ear into the door, and he shall be your bondman for ever. And
to your bondwoman you shall do likewise. [18] It shall not seem hard to
you, when you let him go free from you; for at half the cost of a hired
servant he has served you six years. So the LORD your God will bless you in
all that you do. [19] "All the firstling males that are born of your herd
and flock you shall consecrate to the LORD your God; you shall do no work
with the firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock.
[20] You shall eat it, you and your household, before the LORD your God
year by year at the place which the LORD will choose. [21] But if it has
any blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has any serious blemish whatever,
you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. [22] You shall eat it
within your towns; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it
were a gazelle or a hart. [23] Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall
pour it out on the ground like water.
