Loans
(Leviticus 25.1-7)Moses said:
1-2 Every seven years you must announce, “The Lord says loans do not need to be paid back.” Then if you have loaned money to another Israelite, you can no longer ask for payment. 3 This law applies only to loans you have made to other Israelites. Foreigners will still have to pay back what you have loaned them.
4-6 No one in Israel should ever be poor. The Lord your God is giving you this land, and he has promised to make you very successful, if you obey his laws and teachings that I'm giving you today. You will lend money to many nations, but you won't have to borrow. You will rule many nations, but they won't rule you.
7 After the Lord your God gives land to each of you, there may be poor Israelites in the town where you live. If there are, then don't be mean and selfish with your money. 8 Instead, be kind and lend them what they need. 9 Be careful! Don't say to yourself, “Soon it will be the seventh year, and then I won't be able to get my money back.” It would be horrible for you to think that way and to be so selfish that you refuse to help the poor. They are your relatives, and if you don't help them, they may ask the Lord to decide whether you have done wrong. And he will say that you are guilty. 10 You should be happy to give the poor what they need, because then the Lord will make you successful in everything you do.
11 There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy. That's why I am commanding you to be generous with them.
Setting Slaves Free
(Exodus 21.1-11)Moses said to Israel:
12 If any of you buy Israelites as slaves, you must set them free after six years. 13 And don't just tell them they are free to leave— 14 give them sheep and goats and a good supply of grain and wine. The more the Lord has given you, the more you should give them. 15 I am commanding you to obey the Lord as a reminder that you were slaves in Egypt before he set you free. 16 But one of your slaves may say, “I love you and your family, and I would be better off staying with you, so please don't make me leave.” 17 Take the slave to the door of your house and push a sharp metal rod through one earlobe and into the door. Such slaves will belong to you for life, whether they are men or women.
18 Don't complain when you have to set a slave free. After all, you got six years of service at half the cost of hiring someone to do the work.
First-Born Animals
(Leviticus 27.26Leviticus 27Numbers 18.15-18)Moses said to Israel:
19 If the first-born animal of a cow or sheep or goat is a male, it must be given to the Lord. Don't put first-born cattle to work or cut wool from first-born sheep. 20 Instead, each year you must take the first-born of these animals to the place where the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped. You and your family will sacrifice them to the Lord and then eat them as part of a sacred meal.
21 But if the animal is lame or blind or has something else wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 You can butcher it where you live, and eat it just like the meat of a deer or gazelle that you kill while hunting. Even those people who are unclean and unfit for worship can have some. 23 But you must never eat the blood of an animal—let it drain out on the ground.
1 At the terme of seuen yeeres thou shalt make a freedome. 2 And this is the maner of the freedome: euery creditour shall quite ye lone of his hand which he hath lent to his neighbour: he shall not aske it againe of his neighbour, nor of his brother: for the yeere of the Lords freedome is proclaimed. 3 Of a stranger thou mayest require it: but that which thou hast with thy brother, thine hand shall remit: 4 Saue when there shall be no poore with thee: for the Lord shall blesse thee in the land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee, for an inheritance to possesse it: 5 So that thou hearken vnto the voyce of the Lord thy God to obserue and doe all these commandements, which I commande thee this day. 6 For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, as he hath promised thee: and thou shalt lend vnto many nations, but thou thy selfe shalt not borow, and thou shalt reigne ouer many nations, and they shall not reigne ouer thee. 7 If one of thy brethren with thee be poore within any of thy gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poore brother: 8 But thou shalt open thine hand vnto him, and shalt lend him sufficient for his neede which he hath. 9 Beware that there be not a wicked thought in thine heart, to say, The seuenth yeere, the yeere of freedome is at hand: therefore it grieueth thee to looke on thy poore brother, and thou giuest him nought, and he crie vnto the Lord against thee, so that sinne be in thee: 10 Thou shalt giue him, and let it not grieue thine heart to giue vnto him: for because of this the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in al thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand to. 11 Because there shall be euer some poore in the land, therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand vnto thy brother, to thy needie, and to thy poore in thy land. 12 If thy brother an Ebrewe sell himselfe to thee, or an Ebrewesse, and serue thee sixe yeere, euen in the seuenth yeere thou shalt let him goe free from thee: 13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him goe away emptie, 14 But shalt giue him a liberall reward of thy sheepe, and of thy corne, and of thy wine: thou shalt giue him of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. 15 And remember that thou wast a seruant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God deliuered thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day. 16 And if he say vnto thee, I will not go away from thee, because he loueth thee and thine house, and because he is well with thee, 17 Then shalt thou take a naule, and perce his eare through against the doore, and he shall be thy seruant for euer: and vnto thy maid seruant thou shall doe likewise. 18 Let it not grieue thee, when thou lettest him goe out free from thee: for he hath serued thee sixe yeeres, which is the double worth of an hired seruant: and the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in all that thou doest. 19 All the first borne males that come of thy cattell, and of thy sheepe, thou shalt sanctifie vnto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt do no worke with thy first borne bullocke, nor sheare thy first borne sheepe. 20 Thou shalt eate it before the Lord thy God yeere by yeere, in the place which the Lord shall chose, both thou, and thine household. 21 But if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or haue any euill fault, thou shalt not offer it vnto the Lord thy God, 22 But shalt eate it within thy gates: the vncleane, and the cleane shall eate it alike, as the roe bucke, and as the hart. 23 Onely thou shalt not eate the blood thereof, but powre it vpon the ground as water.