1 At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release from debt. 2 This is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not demand payment from his neighbor or his brother, because a release to the LORD has been proclaimed. 3 You may demand payment from a foreigner, but your hand shall release what your brother owes you. 4 However, there shall be no poor among you, for the LORD will surely bless you in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, 5 if only you diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do this whole commandment that I command you today. 6 For the LORD your God will have blessed you, as he has told you. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

7 If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers within any of your gates in the land the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or close your hand against your poor brother. 8 Instead, open your hand wide to him and surely lend him enough for his need, whatever he lacks. 9 Be careful lest a worthless thought arise in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is near,’ and your eye be evil toward your poor brother and you give him nothing. He will cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 10 You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all you put your hand to. 11 For the poor will never cease from the land. Therefore I command you, saying, ‘Open your hand wide to your brother, to the poor and needy in your land.’

12 If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you shall send him away free. 13 When you send him away free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. 14 Supply him generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Give to him from what the LORD your God has blessed you with. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this today. 16 But if he says to you, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and your household, because he fares well with you, 17 then take an awl and drive it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. Do the same for your female slave. 18 It shall not seem hard to you to send him away free, for his six years of service to you have been worth twice the wages of a hired worker. The LORD your God will bless you in all you do.

19 You shall consecrate to the LORD your God every firstborn male born among your herds and flocks. You shall not work with the firstborn of your cattle or shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 You and your household shall eat it before the LORD your God year by year, at the place the LORD will choose. 21 But if it has a blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has any serious blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22 You shall eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean may eat it together, as they would a gazelle or deer. 23 Only you shall not eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.