Deuteronomy 15: Release of Debts in the Seventh Year
1 “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. 2 And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called Yahweh’s release. 3 Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, 4 except when there may be no poor among you; for Yahweh will greatly bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— 5 only if you carefully obey the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. 6 For Yahweh your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.’ For, [practically] as there was no sowing or produce of the land every seventh year, Hebrew debtors, unless they were very rich, could not have paid their debts that year without great inconvenience.” (Thomas Coke) Moreover: “The general object of these precepts, as also of the year of Jubilee and the laws respecting inheritance, is to prevent the total ruin of a needy person, and his disappearance from the families of Israel by the sale of his patrimony.” (Albert Barnes) But ultimately and spiritually this passage pointed to the Heavenly Canaan, “wherein all Israelites indeed are discharged of their debts” (John Trapp)— for sin. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
“Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother,” etc. “For this was one of the privileges of the Jewish community, and not one of the common rights of mankind.” (Thomas Coke) “The foreigner would not be bound by the restriction of the sabbatical year, and therefore would have no claim to its special remissions and privileges. He could earn his usual income in the seventh as in other years, and therefore is not exonerated from liability to discharge a debt anymore in the one than the others.” (Albert Barnes)
But they could have more mercy. “Moses taught that each nation, or community, or church, should care for its own. To go beyond that was permitted, but not enjoined. Christ taught a much broader truth than that— charity without distinction. Our neighbour is not the person who lives next door to us, or who has most affinity with us; but the person who is nearest to our helping hand, even though he be a Jew and we are Samaritans. Our first duty is to our own, but not our last. Charity begins at home, but does not end there. Moses was systematic, but Christ was above systems. There was no fixed standard with Him, except this. ‘Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor.’” (Charles T. Price)— ’because it is called the Yahweh’s release.’ Render, because proclamation has been made of the Lord‘s release… has been publicly announced.” (Albert Barnes)— “‘except when there may be no poor among you;’— “This clause is the source of a very interesting passage in the Acts of the Apostles…, ‘Great grace was upon them all, for neither was there among them any (one) that lacked’ The words at the beginning of the verse in Hebrew, ‘save when’ may also be rendered ‘to the end that,’ or ‘to such an extent that there shall be no poor man among you.’" (C. J. Ellicott)
If "'you carefully obey the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For Yahweh your God will bless you just as He promised you;' —So in Acts 4:33, ‘Great grace was upon them all.’ The blessing need not be equal and universal prosperity, if those who have the good things of this world will always remember the poor to such an extent that no member of the community shall be left in want.” (C. J. Ellicott) But there is an objection.
"It is said, the poor should never cease, Deuteronomy 15:11. [Also Matthew 26:11] Answer: That also is true, and affirmed by God, because he foresaw they would not perform their duty, and therefore would bereave themselves of the promised blessing.” (Matthew Poole) — But if you will obey indeed, you shall open your hands wide. Your benevolence shall be in proportion to a man's distress and poverty, and your ability. "Thou shalt have no other rule to regulate thy charity by." (Adam Clarke) The nations shall not rule over you, but rather you over them.
Deuteronomy 15: Watch Your Heart for Evil Thoughts
7 “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. 9 Beware lest there 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, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you. 10 You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. 11 For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’
I believe the poor are treated as brethren of Israel regardless of religion. “‘If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren,’ etc. as there would be, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, if they did not keep the commandments of the law, and continue therein.” (John Gill)—“‘within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you’ etc. The poor of thine own city come before the poor of another city.” (C. J. Ellicott)—“‘you shall not harden your heart’— but rather ‘draw out thy soul to the hungry.’ [Isaiah 58:10] Many have iron bowels and withered hands.” (John Trapp)— ‘nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.’”
“Aged and impotent poor, whose misery moves compassion without an orator; called here our poor, as well as our brethren.” (John Trapp)
It matters not whether there is a single day or a full six years before the release. Train your heart not to discern the difference, for Yahweh will reward your giving with treasure in heaven. “‘Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart’; suppress the first risings and inward motions of such uncharitableness.” (Matthew Poole)—“‘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,” etc.— Because this law [of release from debts] might tend to make some people cautious and niggardly in lending to the poor, as being assured they should lose the debt at the seventh year, if it were not paid before; or, upon this account, might make them sparing of their charities in other matters; Moses here cautions them against being influenced by so mean a principle, and charges every Israelite to look upon his poor neighbour as a brother, equally related to God as himself, who therefore would be sure to punish all uncharitableness to such as were his own people, as he would be to bless and reward those who, with a generous and bountiful heart, gratefully depended on his providence, and obeyed his commands. Open thy hand — That is, deal bountifully and liberally with him. Beware — Suppress the first risings of such uncharitableness.” (Joseph Benson)—
“‘and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you.’ Who is the poor man’s king, as James V of Scotland was termed for his charity.” (John Trapp) “Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (James 5:4)
“God has pledged himself to hear the cries of the poor.” (Sutcliffe) While the poor “had no influence on the present corrupt courts, their cries had an influence in Heaven. Their cries for justice had reach the ears of God (compare Genesis 4:5; Genesis 18:20-21).” (Peter Pett)— “the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth” (5:4), “quotation from Isaiah 5:9 as in Romans 9:29, transliterating the Hebrew word for ‘Hosts.” (Robertson’s Word Picture)—the Commander of God’s army.Who is Yahweh of hosts? “Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel,and His Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God.." (Isaiah 44:6) Comparing Scripture with Scripture, we find that in Revelation 22:13, Jesus identifies Himself as ‘the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ which clearly parallels the Is passage. So Jesus is our Jehovah Sabaoth.” (Precept Austin)
“James has very much in mind Isaiah 5:8-9 LXX which reads, ‘Woe to those who join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbour’s. Will you dwell alone upon the land? For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of host, for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses will be desolate, and there will be no inhabitants in them.’” (Peter Pett) They will have perished in the wrath of the Ancient of Days- along with their riches.
“‘You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor shall never cease out of the land' etc. - To this passage our Lord appears to allude Mark 14:7;… For ye have the poor with you always. God leaves these in mercy among men to exercise the feelings of compassion, tenderness, mercy, etc. And without occasions afforded to exercise these, man would soon become a Stoic or a brute.” (Adam Ckarke)
Deuteronomy 15: The Law Concerning Bondservants
12 “If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; 14 you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what Yahweh your God has blessed you with, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. 16 And if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, 17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. 18 It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.
The Jews were owners of the land, as well as promoters of true religion. They were Abraham's descendants and had never been slaves of anyone. (John 8:33) However, under the Mosaic legislation, there were people “under obligation to serve a master, who in turn would provide a measure of protection. Some servants were slaves under legal bondage; others were servants voluntarily.” (William Tyndale) Through the aforementioned debt or some crime committed with the restitution of wages, they could come into slavey “by sanction of the judges.”(Joseph Sutcliffe) They would become bondservants of the offended, or perhaps of a kinsman redeemer who paid their debt for them; but at the end of six years, the slave was entitled to freedom by that same law.
“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.” (Exod 21:2-4) “The six years here specified are not to be confounded with the years ending at the sabbatical year; they are any six years during which the individual has been in bondage.” (Pulpit Comm.)
In Deuteronomy, we here learn a new precept of the law for this time of the occupation: The slave being released was to be furnished by his master with the means of setting up a home for himself. Yahweh cares for the downtrodden, even criminals. “They were set free, laden down with the riches of the flock, the floor and the winepress.” (Arno Gaebelein)
But the important thing here is the heart of the master. “That which is natural must be chastened out of the soul: ‘Ye must be born again.” (The People's Bible) They were to be induced to do this by the recollection of their own redemption out of the bondage of Egypt, - the same motive that is urged for the laws and exhortations enjoining compassion towards foreigners, servants, maids, widows, orphans, and the poor, not only in Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 10:19; Deuteronomy 16:12; Deuteronomy 24:18, Deuteronomy 24:22, but also in Exodus 22:20; Exodus 23:9, and Leviticus 19:34.” (Keil & Delitzsch)
"’It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.’ (Deuteronomy 15:18) …. We may, at times, brace ourselves up to the business of doing a kindness; we do it as a matter of duty; and, all the while, it may ‘seem hard’ that we should have to do it; thus the act will be robbed of all its charms. It is the generous heart that adorns the generous act. We should so do a kindness as to assure the recipient that our own heart is made glad by the act. This is the divine way: ‘When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.’ ‘It is meet that we should make merry, and be glad.’” (C. H. Mackintosh)
When the master fulfilled the Spirit of this law, a miracle often occurred. The freed slave would chose to remain as a servant— but free. “But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.” (Exodus 21:5-6} “They were not to be compelled to go, but were to be bound to eternal, i.e., lifelong bondage, in the manner prescribed.” (Keil & Delitzsch)
In a public ceremony, he was permitted to declare his love and loyalty to his master with his family. He too had been delivered from slavery. Whatever his master said, they would do, symbolized by the piercing of the ear to the door post of his house. “‘And also unto thy maidservant’ — his wife— “‘thou shalt do likewise,’ that is… engage her to perpetual servitude, in the same manner and by the same rites.” (John Wesley) They would serve him, i.e. obey him “forever,” that is as long as they lived in this world— “a brand of servitude stamped on his ear [their ears] (Ps 40:6) for life...” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
“Isaiah 41:8-9 defines this highest servanthood as something granted by God's grace: ‘But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen . . . ; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, 'You are my servant. . . . ' This title is thus applicable to heroes of faith and action--to the patriarchs (Gn 26:24; Ez 28:25; 37:25), to Moses (Ex 14:31; 1 Kgs 8:53, 56), to David (2 Sm 7:26-29; Jer 33:21-26; Ez 37:24) and his descendants (as Hezekiah, Eliakim, Zerubbabel--Hg 2:23), to the prophets (2 Kgs 10:10; 14:25), and to other faithful Israelites, such as Joshua and Caleb (Nm 14:24; Jos 24:29; Jgs 2:8). Prophets other than Isaiah employ this term, but only Zechariah joins him in giving an apparently messianic prediction to this name. Zechariah 3:8 says, ‘Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men of good omen: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch’ Some would see Zerubbabel as the individual in view here (cf. Zec 6:12); however, the use of ‘Branch’ is decidedly messianic in Isaiah (Is 11:1) and Jeremiah (Jer 33:15).” (Tyndale)
Likewise, Jesus paid our price and offers us release in our year of Jubilee.. “If we can bear reproach for Christ, it is an argument we mean to stick to Him, as this bored servant to his master.” (John Trapp) "The servant, in the state of servitude, was an emblem of that state of bondage to sin, Satan, and the law, which man is brought into by robbing God of his glory, by the transgression of his precepts. Likewise in being made free, he was an emblem of that liberty wherewith Christ, the Son of God, makes free from bondage his people, who are free indeed; and made so freely, without money and without price, of free grace.” (Matthew Henry) Come to the door of the sanctuary and declare your love for Jesus allowing Him to pierce your ears, yea your hearts, with His Word that you may hear and do it.... and live with Him forever—in this world and the next.
Deuteronomy 15: The Law Concerning Firstborn Animals
19 “All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall sanctify to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 You and your household shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh chooses. 21 But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. 22 You may eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. 23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.
Perhaps this a description of the central object of the Passover meal described in the next chapter. It was separated on the eighth day, according to the law- just as the men of Israel were circumcised on the eighth day. We are all called to service, but few answer that call.
“Here is a repetition of the law concerning the firstlings of their cattle, that, if they were males, they were to be sanctified to the Lord, in remembrance of, and in thankfulness for, the sparing of the first-born of Israel, when the first-born of the Egyptians, both of man and beast, were slain by the destroying angel (Exodus 13:2,15) on the eighth day it was to be given to God (Exodus 22:30), and to be divided between the priest and the altar, Numbers 18:17,18. 2.” (Matthew Henry) “In Numbers 18:15-18 the firstlings of clean beasts are the perquisite of the priests[— substituted in the mosaic legislation for the firstborn of every house in proclaiming salvation to Israel]. Here they are to be eaten by the owner and his household annually at the central sanctuary.” (John Dummelow) Thus the priests shared it with them.
“Only that which was perfect was to be offered to God. The first-born, unblemished male, the apt figure of the spotless Lamb of God[— circumcised on the eighth day, and likewise set aside for a lifetime of service], offered upon the cross for us, the imperishable foundation of our peace, and the precious food of our souls, in the presence of God. This was the divine thing; the assembly gathered together [male and female, poor and rich, bondservant and free], around the divine centre, feasting in the presence of God, on that which was the appointed type of Christ, who is, at once, our sacrifice, our centre, and our feast. Eternal and universal homage to His most precious and glorious Name!” (C. H. Mackintosh)
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."— Galatians 3:28