Deuteronomy 15:7-23 ▼

7 If there is among you a poor man of one of your brothers within one of the gates in your land that YHWH your God is giving to you, you shall not strengthen your heart and not shut your hand from your poor brother.

8 But you shall surely open your hand to him, and you shall freely loan him what is sufficient for his need, whatever is lacking unto him.

9 Beware for yourself, lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year is near, the year of release,” and your eye is evil against your poor brother, and you give to him nothing, and he cries out against you to YHWH, and it becomes sin among you.

10 You shall give generously to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing YHWH your God will bless you in all your works and in all the sending out of your hand.

11 For the poor will never cease from the midst of the land; upon thus I command you, saying that you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy in your land.

12 If your brother is sold to you, a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, and he has served you six years, in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

13 And when you send him away free from you, you must not send him emptily.

14 You shall generously furnish him from your flock, and from your threshing floor, and from your winepress; that with which YHWH your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH your God redeemed you. Upon thus I command you this thing today.

16 And it shall come to pass that if he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since it is good to him with you,

17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear and to the door, and he shall be your servant forever; and to your maidservant you shall do likewise.

18 It shall not seem hard in your eyes when you send him away free from you, for he has been worth double of a hireling in serving you six years; and YHWH your God will bless you in all that you do.

19 All the firstborn that come from your herd and your flock—the male—you shall sanctify to YHWH your God. You shall not do work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

20 Before the face of YHWH your God you shall eat it year by year in the place that YHWH chooses—You and your house.

21 But if there is in it a blemish—lameness or blindness, any serious blemish—you shall not sacrifice it to YHWH your God.

22 Within your gates you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as a gazelle or a deer.

23 Only its blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it on the ground like water.