1. At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
2. And this is the manner of the release: everyone who has lent anything to his neighbour, causing him to be in debt, shall release it; he shall not exact it any more of his neighbour or of his brother, because the release of the Lord is proclaimed.
3. Of the foreigner thou shalt demand that it be repaid; but that which thy brother has of thine thy hand shall release,
4. so that thus there shall be no poor among you, for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance to possess it;
5. only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
6. For when the Lord thy God has blessed thee, as he promised thee, thou shalt lend unto many Gentiles, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many Gentiles, but they shall not rule over thee.
7. If there should be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy towns in thy land which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother,
8. but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he lacks.
9. Keep thyself that there not be a thought of Belial in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother to give him nothing; for he shall cry unto the Lord against thee, and it shall be a sin unto thee.
10. Thou shalt surely give unto him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand to.
11. For the poor shall never cease out of the land; therefore, I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy, in thy land.
12. And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold unto thee and serves thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt send him forth from thee free.
13. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not send him away empty.
14. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy threshing floor and out of thy winepress; of that with which the Lord thy God has blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
15. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God ransomed thee; therefore, I command thee this thing to day.
16. And it shall be, if he says unto thee, I will not go away from thee because he loves thee and thy house because he is well with thee,
17. then thou shalt take an aul and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy slave for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.
18. It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free from thee, for he has served thee for half the cost of a hired servant for six years; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
19. All the firstborn males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God; thou shalt do no work with the firstborn of thy bullock nor shear the firstborn of thy sheep.
20. Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God each year in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou and thy household.
21. And if there is any blemish in it, if it is lame or blind or has any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God.
22. Thou shalt eat it within thy gates; the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck and as the hart.
23. Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.