Chapter 15

The Sabbatic Year

1 “aAt the end of every seven years you shall 1grant a remission of debts.

2 “This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed.

3 “aFrom a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.

4 “However, there will be no poor among you, since athe Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,

5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.

6 “aFor the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 “If there is aa poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your 1towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, byou shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;

8 but ayou shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

9 “Beware that there is no base 1thought in your heart, saying, ‘aThe seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and byour eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he cmay cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you.

10 “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because afor this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all 1your undertakings.

11 “aFor the poor will never cease to be 1in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’

12 “aIf your 1kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him 2free.

13 “When you set him 1free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.

14 “You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you.

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 1this today.

16 “It shall come about aif 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 pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.

18 “It shall not seem hard to you when you set him 1free, for he has given you six years with 2double the service of a hired man; so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.

19 “aYou shall consecrate to the Lord your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

20 “aYou and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses.

21 “aBut if it has any 1defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious 1defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.

22 “You shall eat it within your gates; athe unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as aa gazelle or a deer.

23 “Only ayou shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

Chapter 16

The Feasts of Passover, of Weeks, and of Booths

1 “Observe athe month of Abib and 1bcelebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 “You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name.

3 “aYou shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember ball the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

4 “For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and anone of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.

5 “You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your 1towns which the Lord your God is giving you;

6 but aat the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt.

7 “You shall acook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents.

8 “Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and aon the seventh day there shall be ba solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

9 “aYou shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.

10 “Then you shall 1celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you;

11 and you shall arejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and bthe Levite who is in your 1town, and cthe stranger and the 2orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name.

12 “aYou shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

13 “aYou shall 1celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat;

14 and you shall arejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the 1orphan and the widow who are in your 2towns.

15 “Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

16 “aThree times in a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and bthey shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.

17 “Every man 1shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

18 “You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your 1towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

19 “aYou shall not distort justice; byou shall not 1be partial, and cyou shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

20 “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that ayou may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

21 “aYou shall not plant for yourself an 1Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, which you shall make for yourself.

22 “aYou shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which the Lord your God hates.

Chapter 17

Administration of Justice

1 “aYou shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any 1defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

2 “aIf there is found in your midst, in any of your 1towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant,

3 and has gone and aserved other gods and worshiped them, bor the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, cwhich I have not commanded,

4 and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and ayou shall stone them to 1death.

6 “aOn the 1evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the 1evidence of one witness.

7 “aThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. bSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

8 “aIf any case is too difficult for you to decide, between 1one kind of homicide or another, between 2one kind of lawsuit or another, and between 3one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your 4courts, then you shall arise and go up to bthe place which the Lord your God chooses.

9 “So you shall come to athe Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.

10 “You shall do according to the 1terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you.

11 “aAccording to the 1terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left.

12 “The man who acts apresumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

13 “Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act apresumptuously again.

14 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you apossess it and live in it, and you say, ‘bI will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’

15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one afrom among your 1countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your 1countryman.

16 “aMoreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he bcause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since cthe Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’

17 “aHe shall not multiply wives for himself, 1or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll 1ain the presence of the Levitical priests.

19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it aall the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, 1by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his 1countrymen aand that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.