Deuteronomy 15

This chapter stands at the center of the legal collection that runs from chapters 12 through 26 of Deuteronomy. The close of Deuteronomy 14 commands that the tithe of every third year be shared with the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; this chapter continues by treating the ordinances for caring for poor neighbors in greater detail.

Outline

• Verses 1–6 At the end of every seven years, whatever has been lent to a neighbor or brother is to be released, and the debt is not to be exacted. This year is called "the LORD'S release." Repayment may, however, be exacted of a foreigner. If the people keep the commandment, they will be blessed so that "there shall be no poor among you," and they are promised that they will lend to many nations but will not borrow.
• Verses 7–11 The people are not to harden their hearts or shut their hands against a poor brother but are to lend to him generously. They are warned not to begrudge giving because the year of release is near. Since the poor will never cease out of the land, they are commanded to open their hand.
• Verses 12–18 When a Hebrew man or woman who has been sold has served six years, he or she is to be set free in the seventh year. The servant is not to be sent away empty-handed but is to be furnished liberally from the flock, the threshing floor, and the winepress. The reason given is that the people are to remember that they were bondmen in Egypt. If the servant chooses to remain, an awl is to be thrust through his ear into the door, and he becomes a servant for ever.
• Verses 19–23 The firstborn males of cattle and sheep are to be set apart to the LORD and eaten with one's household in the place the LORD chooses. An animal with a blemish is not to be sacrificed but may be eaten within the towns; its blood, however, is not to be eaten but poured out upon the ground as water.

Key Verses

• Deuteronomy 15:11 "For the poor shall never cease out of the land … thou shalt open thine hand wide" — Jesus' words at Bethany, "For ye have the poor with you always" (Mark 14:7), recall this verse.
• Deuteronomy 15:15 "And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee" — the release of servants and the sharing of goods are grounded in the experience of deliverance in the Exodus.

People and Places

• The LORD: appears as the one who commands the ordinances of the year of release and of the freeing of servants.
• Hebrews: in this chapter, fellow Israelites who have been sold into servitude because of debt.
• Foreigners: outsiders who are excluded from the release.
• Egypt: remembered as the land where Israel was in bondage.
• The place the LORD chooses: the place of worship where the firstborn are eaten; the text does not name it.

Points for Reflection

• Interpreters differ on whether the "release" cancels a debt entirely or merely suspends its collection for that year. Jewish tradition understood it as debt cancellation. Rabbinic literature relates that Hillel instituted a court-based mechanism (the prozbul) so that debts could still be collected despite the year of release.
• The year of release in verses 1–6 is a fixed year observed by everyone together, whereas the freeing of servants in verses 12–18 takes place in the seventh year of each servant's service. The two ordinances should be read as distinct. They are also compared with the ordinances of the sabbatical year, in which the land rests, and of the Jubilee.
• Compared with the law for freeing servants in Exodus 21:2–6, Deuteronomy explicitly includes female servants and adds the requirement to provide for them generously at their release.
• The phrase "there shall be no poor among you" in verse 4 is often read alongside "Neither was there any among them that lacked" in Acts 4:32–35, which describes the early church.
• Some Christian interpreters, linking it with Psalm 40:6 and Hebrews 10:5–7, read the servant who chooses to remain and has his ear pierced as a type of Christ's obedience. This is a later interpretation, not something the text states directly.
• The prohibition against eating blood in verse 23 is discussed in connection with the regulations in Genesis 9:1–7 and Acts 15:28–29.