Chapter 15

Debts and the Poor. ¹ At the end of every seven-year period^[a] you shall have a remission of debts,^{(A) 2} and this is the manner of the remission. Creditors shall remit all claims on loans made to a neighbor, not pressing the neighbor, one who is kin, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. ³ You may press a foreigner, but you shall remit the claim on what your kin owes to you.^{(B) 4 (C)}However, since the Lord, your God, will bless you abundantly in the land the Lord, your God, will give you to possess as a heritage, there shall be no one of you in need ⁵ if you but listen to the voice of the Lord, your God, and carefully observe this entire commandment which I enjoin on you today. ⁶ Since the Lord, your God, will bless you as he promised, you will lend to many nations, and borrow from none;^(D) you will rule over many nations, and none will rule over you.

^7 (E)If one of your kindred is in need in any community in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand against your kin who is in need. ⁸ Instead, you shall freely open your hand and generously lend what suffices to meet that need.^{(F) 9} Be careful not to entertain the mean thought, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,” so that you would begrudge your kin who is in need and give nothing, and your kin would cry to the Lord against you and you would be held guilty.^{(G) 10} When you give, give generously and not with a stingy heart; for that, the Lord, your God, will bless you in all your works and undertakings. ¹¹ The land will never lack for needy persons; that is why I command you: “Open your hand freely to your poor and to your needy kin in your land.”^(H)

Loans and Wages. ¹⁰ When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, you shall not enter the neighbor’s house to receive the pledge, ¹¹ but shall wait outside until the person to whom you are making the loan brings the pledge outside to you. ¹² If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the pledged garment, ¹³ but shall definitely return it at sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the garment^(A) and bless you. That will be your justice before the Lord, your God.

²⁵ If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset;

³⁵ When one of your kindred is reduced to poverty and becomes indebted to you, you shall support that person like a resident alien; let your kindred live with you. ³⁶ Do not exact interest in advance or accrued interest,^[a] but out of fear of God let your kindred live with you. ^37 (A)Do not give your money at interest or your food at a profit. ³⁸ I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

⁸ if he does not lend at interest or exact usury; if he refrains from evildoing and makes a fair judgment between two opponents;^(A)

¹³ lends at interest and exacts usury—this son certainly shall not live. Because he practiced all these abominations, he shall surely be put to death; his own blood shall be on him.^(A)

¹⁷ who refrains from evildoing, accepts no interest or usury, but keeps my ordinances and walks in my statutes—this one shall not die for the sins of his father. He shall surely live!

¹² There are those in you who take bribes to shed blood. You exact interest and usury; you extort profit from your neighbor by violence. But me you have forgotten—oracle of the Lord God.^(A)

³⁴ If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit [is] that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount.^{(A) 35} But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.^(B)