36. Do not charge him any interest on money you loan to him. Respect your God. And let the poor man live among you.
37. Don’t lend him money for interest. Don’t try to make a profit from the food he buys.
38. I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I did it to give the land of Canaan to you and to become your God.
39. “‘Someone from your country might become very poor. He might even sell himself as a slave to you. If he does, you must not make him work like a slave.
40. He will be like a hired worker. And he will be like a visitor with you until the year of Jubilee.
41. Then he may leave you. He may take his children and go back to his family and the land of his ancestors.
42. This is because the Israelites are my servants. I brought them out of slavery in Egypt. They must not become slaves again.
43. You must not rule this person cruelly. You must respect your God.
44. “‘You may buy men and women slaves from other nations around you.
45. Also you may buy children as slaves. These children must come from the families of foreigners living in your land. These child slaves will belong to you.
46. You may even pass these foreign slaves on to your children after you die. You can make them slaves forever. But you must not rule cruelly over your own brothers, the Israelites.
47. “‘A foreigner or visitor among you might become rich. And someone in your country might become poor. The poor man might sell himself as a slave to a foreigner living among you. Or he might sell himself to a member of a foreigner’s family.
48. The poor man has the right to be bought back and become free. One of his relatives may buy him back.