Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter the Fifteenth
Synopsis of the Chapter
The law is repeated of the seventh year of release, that in it the Jews should remit debts, and let their Hebrew men-servants and maid-servants go free (of which vers. 12), and give them provision for the way. Secondly, vers. 19, the law is repeated about the firstborn to be offered to God and eaten in the tabernacle, unless they were blemished or maimed.
1. In the seventh year thou shalt make a release, 2. which shall be celebrated in this order. He to whom anything is owing from his friend or neighbour or brother, cannot demand it again, because it is the year of the release of the Lord. 3. Of the stranger and foreigner thou mayest exact it: of thy countryman and neighbour thou shalt not have power to demand it again. 4. And there shall be no poor nor beggar among you: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land which he will give thee in possession. 5. But yet if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep all things that he hath commanded, and which I command thee this day, he will bless thee, as he hath promised. 6. Thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt borrow of no man. Thou shalt have dominion over very many nations, and no one shall have dominion over thee. 7. If one of thy brethren that dwell within the gates of thy city, in the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, come to poverty, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor close thy hand, 8. but shalt open it to the poor man, and shalt lend him, that which thou perceivest he hath need of. 9. Beware lest perhaps a wicked thought steal upon thee, and thou say in thy heart: The seventh year of release is at hand: and thou turn away thy eyes from thy poor brother, denying him that which he asketh: lest he cry against thee to the Lord, and it become a sin unto thee. 10. But thou shalt give to him: neither shalt thou do any thing craftily in relieving his necessities: that the Lord thy God may bless thee at all times, and in all things to which thou shalt put thy hand. 11. There will not be wanting poor in the land of thy habitation: therefore I command thee to open thy hand to thy needy and poor brother, that liveth in the land. 12. When thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to thee, and hath served thee six years, in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free: 13. and when thou sendest him out free, thou shalt not suffer him to go away empty, 14. but shalt give him for his way out of thy flocks, and out of thy barnfloor, and thy winepress, wherewith the Lord thy God shall bless thee. 15. Remember that thou also wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God made thee free, and therefore I now command thee this. 16. But if he say: I will not depart, because he loveth thee and thy house, and findeth that he is well with thee: 17. thou shalt take an awl and bore through his ear in the door of thy house, and he shall serve thee for ever: thou shalt do the like to thy woman servant also. 18. Turn not away thy eyes from them when thou lettest them go free; because he hath served thee six years, according to the wages of a hireling: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works that thou dost. 19. Of the firstborn that are born in thy herds and in thy flocks, whatsoever is of the male sex, thou shalt sanctify to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not do any work with the firstborn of the ox, and thou shalt not shear the firstborn of the sheep. 20. Thou shalt eat them before the Lord thy God every year, in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou and thy house. 21. But if it have a blemish, or be lame, or blind, or in any part deformed or feeble, it shall not be sacrificed to the Lord thy God: 22. but thou shalt eat it within the gates of thy city: the clean and the unclean shall eat of them alike, as the roe and the hart. 23. This only thou shalt observe, that thou eat not their blood, but shalt pour it out upon the earth as water.
Vers. 2. HE TO WHOM ANYTHING IS OWING FROM HIS FRIEND, OR NEIGHBOUR, OR BROTHER,—that is, from a Jew, who is a brother by race, and therefore a friend and neighbour. This law therefore speaks only of a Jewish debtor who owes something to another Jew; for such a one in the seventh year of release was freed of every debt by the indulgence of this law; but it does not speak of proselytes, those converted to Judaism; for these, in the seventh year, remained bound by their debts. So Abulensis.
Moreover understand the debt as arising from a loan or a sale, but not from a thing lent for use, because this is not properly a debt, but something belonging to another, or a thing pertaining to someone else. So Abulensis. See what is said on Leviticus xxv, 2 and following.
3. OF THY COUNTRYMAN AND NEIGHBOUR THOU SHALT NOT HAVE POWER TO DEMAND IT AGAIN.—In the Hebrew: that which thou hast with thy brother thou shalt release with thy hand (that is, thou shalt give up the demand of the debt, which is made by stretching out the hand) to thy brother, namely the Jew.
4. AND THERE SHALL BE NO POOR NOR BEGGAR AMONG YOU,—as if to say: Take care, as far as in you lies, that there be no needy and beggars among you, namely by lending to the poor, especially the sick or infirm, the things they need, and remitting these to them in the seventh year if they cannot before pay and restore them; with this, then, agrees well what poor, that the rich might have occasion to exercise mercy toward them; hence, even if the Hebrews had tried to bring it about that there should be no poor in Israel, they could never in fact have accomplished it.
Vatablus reconciles it otherwise: for he says that among the Hebrews there were private poor, but no public beggars, as now happens in well-ordered commonwealths.
Again, [the Interpreter] renders this place thus: “except that there be no poor man among thee,” as if to say: To poor brethren thou shalt remit the money lent; but I except rich brethren, to whom thou shalt not remit it, since they have wherewith to repay. But this version differs from the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Septuagint and ours.
6. THOU SHALT LEND TO MANY NATIONS.—For “thou shalt lend” the Hebrew is haabatta, that is, thou shalt lend, or give on loan. So the Chaldee and the Septuagint, who render it, thou shalt lend to many nations, but thou shalt not borrow. Hence it is plain that the Jews have here no defence of their usuries. The sense, then, is as if to say: If in the seventh year thou dost remit the debts to thy debtors, thou shalt not be impoverished, but God will bless thee and enrich thee, so that thou shalt lend to others, but borrow from none; for as a man is punished by the very things by which he sins, so in turn he is rewarded by the very things by which he merits, says Abulensis.