Deuteronomychapter 15
23 verses · BSBDeuteronomy book hub →
Key verse
There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,
It stands in Every seventh year, a release of debts, verses 1 to 6.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The Sabbatical-year release and the Hebrew servant. Every seventh year, every creditor who has lent shall release what he has lent to his neighbour and brother. Lending to the stranger may continue. ‘Save when there shall be no poor among you’. The ideal and the realism in the same breath: ‘the poor shall never cease out of the land’. Therefore open thine hand wide. The Hebrew servant freed in the seventh year goes out free with liberal provision; if he chooses to stay, his ear is bored through with an awl at the door-post. Firstlings of the herd and flock eaten before the LORD at the chosen place. Gill notes the chapter's twin stress: release liberally, free liberally.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 15The history
The speech is Moses in the first person, and the chapter takes the seventh year that rested the land and applies it to debt and to service.
The setting is the plain east of the Jordan in the fortieth year, at about 1406 BC on the frame this site keeps.
The occasion is life in a settled country, where a bad harvest put a family into debt and debt put a person into service.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
A first hearer knew the seventh year already. Exodus 23:10-11 and Leviticus 25:2-7 rested the land in it, so hearing the ledger brought under the same year was the new part.
He knew the servant law of Exodus 21:2-6, and he would have heard two changes. The Hebrew woman is brought under the same six years and the same release, and the freed man is sent out furnished from the flock, the threshing floor and the winepress.
He knew what a loan near the seventh year was worth, which is the calculation verse 9 puts into words before a lender can make it.
The site's dossier names the Code of Hammurabi among the ancient Near Eastern documents set beside this book. The comparison of the law codes belongs to that section rather than to this chapter's own claims.
What it meant to them
The chapter put a clock on poverty. Debt ran seven years at most, and a servant went out in the seventh year with livestock, grain and wine in his hands.
It also refused the arithmetic a careful lender would do, and called the refusal sin, with the poor man's cry going to the LORD.
The ground given for the whole thing was the master's own history, since the man who lets his servant go was himself let go out of Egypt.
Sources cited
- The site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 15, in the store
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 15 falls in Second sermon, the law restated (chapters 5–26). The Decalogue repeated; the Shema; laws for the land, for worship, for kingship, for war, for the poor. The covenant's central exposition.
Before it: First sermon, retrospective, chapters 1–4. After it: Third sermon, blessings and curses, chapters 27–30.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Every seventh year, a release of debts
1. (vv. 1-3)
Deuteronomy 15:1
“At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. Not of servants, for they were not to be dismissed from their service until they had served six years, as is directed to in a following law; for if they were to be set free whenever a sabbatical year came, they might be discharged when they had not served more than a year, or than half a year, or than a month or two.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 15:1
“On that day something really extraordinary happened — all debts are wiped out! All credits are wiped out. The financial realm is wiped clean every seven years.”
Deuteronomy 15:1
“The year of release is no doubt identical with the sabbatical year of the earlier legislation (Exo 23:10 ff, and Lev 25:2 ff), the command of the older legislation being here amplified. The release was probably for the year, not total and final, and had reference only to loans lent because of poverty (compare Deu 15:4, Deu 15:7).”
Deuteronomy 15:2
“THIS wonderful transaction of "the Lord's release" came at the end of every seven years. It was according to the gracious Law of God for Israel that there should be, first of all, a rest one day in seven. Next, there were feast days one month in seven—and then there came, every seventh year, a year of rest for the land in which they did not till it, but left it to lie fallow.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2276: “Forgiveness, Freedom, Favor” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:2
“This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord, and by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins, and we are taught to forgive injuries, as we are and hope to be forgiven of God.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 15:3
“Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again,.... Either on the seventh year, or after it: but that which is thine with thy brother, thine hand shall release; a debt that lies between them, where the one is the creditor, and the other debtor, the creditor shall freely and fully forgive the debtor.”
The seventh year rests the land in Exodus 23:10-11 and Leviticus 25:2-7, and here the same year releases the loan, so the sabbatical principle reaches from the field to the ledger. Commentators divide over how far the release goes, since Albert Barnes reads it as a suspension of collection for that year while John Gill takes the debt to be forgiven outright. Verse 3 exempts the foreigner, which keeps the statute aimed at a brother's poverty rather than at trade.
2. (vv. 4-6)
Deuteronomy 15:4
“Save when there shall be no poor man among you--Apparently a qualifying clause added to limit the application of the foregoing statement [De 15:3]; so that "the brother" to be released pointed to a poor borrower, whereas it is implied that if he were rich, the restoration of the loan might be demanded even during that year.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:4
“Save when there shall be no poor - The words may be rendered thus, as in the margin of our Bibles, To the end that there be no poor among you. And so they contain a reason of this law, namely, that none be impoverished and ruined by a rigid exaction of debts.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 15:5
“In his word, and by his prophets; this being the case, there would be no more poor among them, or however they would be so blessed of God, that they would be capable of releasing the debts of the poor, without hurting themselves and their families: to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day; a phrase often used to put them in mind of the commands of God, and the necessity of keeping them, their temporal happiness depending thereon.”
Deuteronomy 15:6
“For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:6
“The Hebrew lent to the nations at interest. He did not himself receive doctrine from the people but handed it down. To him the Lord opened his treasury so that the rain of his word might make the nations to grow wet and so that he might become the prince among the nations, but he himself would have no prince over himself.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Letters 1-10patristic
Deuteronomy 15:6
“It is altogether inexcusable if, though God had given us abundance, so that we have not only enough but to spare, yet we are rigorous and server in our demands from our poor brethren; for our abundance should be the supply of their wants, that at least there may not be such an inequality as is between two extremes, 2 Cor. viii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Verse 4 says there shall be no poor among you and verse 5 attaches the condition, only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. The margin of the King James Bible turns verse 4 from an exception into a purpose, to the end that there be no poor among you, while Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the clause as a qualification limiting verse 3, so that a wealthy borrower could still be pressed. Verse 6 raises the promise to national scale, lending to many nations and borrowing of none.
B. Do not shut your hand against a poor brother
1. (vv. 7-8)
Deuteronomy 15:7
“If the hand be shut, it is a sign the heart is hardened; for, if the clouds were full of rain, they would empty themselves, Eccl. xi. Bowels of compassion would produce liberal distributions, Jam. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 15:8
“But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him,.... And give him bountifully and liberally; in order to which the heart must be first opened, the affections moved, and a willing mind disposed to give generously: and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth: enough to answer his present exigencies, but not to cause him to abound, or to supply him with things needless and superfluous.”
The command reaches the heart and the hand in one clause, and Matthew Henry takes the shut hand as the visible sign of the hardened heart. Open thine hand wide is then measured by the man's case, sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth, which Adam Clarke reads as the only rule a giver is given. First John 3:17 puts the same two things together, a brother's need seen and the heart shut against it.
2. (vv. 9-10)
Deuteronomy 15:9
“Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart - לבבך בליעל lebabecha beliyaal, thy belial heart, that is, thy good-for-nothing or unprofitable heart; See on Deu 13:13 (note). And thine eye be evil - An evil eye signifies a covetous disposition. See the same form of expression used by our Lord in the same sense, Mat 6:23. If thine eye be evil - If thou be a covetous person. Evil eye is by our Lord opposed to single eye, i. e., a person of a liberal, benevolent mind. Covetousness darkens the soul; liberality and benevolence enlighten it.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 15:10
“Thine heart shall not be grieved - That is, thou shalt give, not only with an open hand, but with a willing and chearful mind, without which thy very charity is uncharitable, and not accepted by God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:10
“Thou shall surely give him,.... Or lend to him; though lending in such a case and circumstances, that person being extremely poor, and the year of release at hand, is the same as giving.”
The statute anticipates a man doing arithmetic, counting the months to the year of release and lending nothing because the debt is about to be cancelled. Adam Clarke renders the Hebrew behind thy wicked heart as a heart of Belial, and reads thine eye be evil as covetousness, the figure Jesus uses at Matthew 6:23 and Matthew 20:15. The refusal is called sin and the poor man's cry goes to the Lord, which is how Exodus 22:22-27 handles the cry of the widow and the pledged garment. Verse 10 asks for the gift without a grieved heart, and 2 Corinthians 9:7 takes up that clause as the cheerful giver.
3. (v. 11)
Deuteronomy 15:11
“For the poor shall never cease out of the land - To this passage our Lord appears to allude Mar 14:7: For ye have the poor with you always. God leaves these in mercy among men to exercise the feelings of compassion, tenderness, mercy, etc. And without occasions afforded to exercise these, man would soon become a Stoic or a brute.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:11
“For the poor shall never cease out of the land--Although every Israelite on the conquest of Canaan became the owner of property, yet in the providence of God who foresaw the event, it was permitted, partly as a punishment of disobedience and partly for the exercise of benevolent and charitable feelings, that "the poor should never cease out of the land." De 15:12-19.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Verse 4 promised that there shall be no poor among you and verse 11 says the poor shall never cease, with the condition of verse 5 standing between the two and the chapter settling nothing. Jesus quotes this verse at Mark 14:7 over the ointment poured at Bethany, and the same words stand at Matthew 26:11 and John 12:8. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the permanence of poverty as partly the penalty of disobedience and partly an occasion for mercy, where Adam Clarke reads it as mercy alone. The command attached to the observation is the command already given at verse 8.
C. Send him away free, and not empty-handed
1. (vv. 12-14)
Deuteronomy 15:12
“If thy brother be sold - Either by himself, or his parents, or as a criminal. Six years - To be computed from the beginning of his servitude, which is everywhere limited to the space of six years.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:12
“And, if the year of jubilee happened before they served out their time, that would be their discharge. God's Israel were a free people, and must not be compelled to perpetual slavery; thus are God's spiritual Israel called unto liberty.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 15:13
“And when thou sendest him out free from thee,.... When he discharged him from his servitude, and made him a free man: thou shall not let him go away empty; without anything to support himself, or to put himself in a way of business; he having in the time of his servitude worked entirely for his master, and so could not have got and saved anything for himself.”
Deuteronomy 15:14
“Thou shalt furnish him - out of thy flock - Thou shalt give him some cattle to breed with; out of thy floor - some corn for seed and for bread; and out of thy wine press - an adequate provision of wine for present necessity.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 21:2-6 gave this law first and two things move here. The Hebrew woman is placed under the same six years and the same seventh-year freedom, where Exodus 21:7 said a daughter sold as a maidservant shall not go out as the menservants do, and readers have long worked at how the two passages stand together. The second change is the furnishing, out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress, which Albert Barnes reads as capital that lets a freed man begin again. Jeremiah 34:8-17 is where Judah keeps this law for a moment, takes the freed servants back, and is answered with a release of another kind.
2. (v. 15)
Deuteronomy 15:15
IN an autobiography of William Jay we read that on one occasion he called to see the famous Mr. John Newton, at Olney, and he observed that over the desk at which he was accustomed to compose his sermons, he had written up in very large letters the following words—"Remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you."
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:15
“The commands here are repeated from Exo 21:2-6, with amplifications relative to the maidservant Deu 15:12 and to the making (Deu 15:13 ff) liberal provision for launching the freedman on an independent course of life. The release of the servant is connected with the sabbatical principle though not with the sabbatical year. It is noteworthy also that the prospect of a gift of this sort, the amount of which was left to the master’s discretion, would be likely to encourage diligence and faithfulness during the years of servitude.”
Remember falls fourteen times in this book and what is to be remembered is always an event rather than a doctrine. The ground of the law is the master's own history, that he was a bondman and the Lord redeemed him, so the man who was let go is the man who lets his servant go. The same clause carries the sabbath at 5:15, the feast of weeks at 16:12, and the gleaning laws at 24:18 and 24:22.
3. (vv. 16-17)
Deuteronomy 15:16
“And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee,....”
Deuteronomy 15:17
“For ever - All the time of his life, or, at least, 'till the year of jubilee. Likewise - That is, either dismiss her with plenty, or engage her to perpetual servitude, in the same manner and by the same rites.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Exodus 21:5-6 gave this ceremony and the repetition drops a step, since there the master brought the servant unto the judges and then to the door, and here he takes the aul and the door alone. The reason the servant gives is love, of the master and of the house, so an act that binds a man for life rests on words he says himself. Verse 17 extends the whole provision to the maidservant, which Exodus does not do. Older commentators, John Gill among them, set the bored ear beside Psalm 40:6, mine ears hast thou opened, and read it of the obedience of Christ, and Hebrews 10:5 quotes that psalm in its Septuagint form, a body hast thou prepared me.
4. (v. 18)
Deuteronomy 15:18
“It shall not seem hard to thee when thou sendest him away free from thee,.... He should not grudge him his liberty, nor what he gives to him when he dismisses him: for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee in serving thee six years; since a hired servant a man is obliged to pay him wages for his work, besides his food, whereas a bondservant received no wages.”
The master is told what the six years were worth, a double hired servant, and John Gill gives the arithmetic, that a hired man draws wages on top of his keep and a bondservant draws none. Readers differ over whether double weighs the value of the labour or the length of the term a hired man would have served. The clause names the master's resentment before he feels it and answers it with a blessing on all that thou doest.
D. The firstlings of herd and flock
1. (vv. 19-20)
Deuteronomy 15:20
“Thou shalt eat it - in the place which the Lord shall choose - Thus God in his mercy made their duty and interest go hand in hand. And in every case God acts thus with his creatures; well, therefore, might Satan ask, Doth Job serve God for naught? No! nor does God design that any man should.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:20
“Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God, year by year,....”
Exodus 13:2 and 13:12 claimed the firstlings, and Numbers 18:15-18 gave their flesh to the priests, while this chapter has the owner and his household eating the firstling before the Lord year by year. Both accounts stand, and Keil and Delitzsch work at the difference by reading Deuteronomy as the sacrificial meal the offerer shares rather than the priest's portion. Forbidding work with the bullock and shearing of the sheep stops an owner drawing profit from an animal already given away. The place which the Lord shall choose falls fifteen times between chapters 12 and 26 and is never named, and verse 20 is one of the fifteen.
2. (vv. 21-23)
Deuteronomy 15:21
“And if there be any blemish therein,.... In the firstling, as if it be "lame or blind", or have any ill blemish: thou shall not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God; blemishes in any beast made it unfit for sacrifices which were required; and so all peace offerings, vows, and freewill offerings, were to be free from any, Lev 22:19, such were not fit for an holy sacrifice or an holy feast.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:21
“If there be any blemish - See the notes on Lev 22:20. God will have both a perfect priest and a perfect offering.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 15:22
“Thou shalt eat it within thy gates,.... Though it might not be sacrificed, nor eaten as an eucharistic feast at Jerusalem, it might be eaten as common food in their own houses: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike; such as were ceremonially unclean, by the touch of a dead body or the like, might partake of it with those that were clean, no difference was to be made: as the roebuck and as the hart; which were clean creatures, and used for food, though not for sacrifice; see Deu 12:15.”
Deuteronomy 15:23
“Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof,.... Of the firstling: thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water; See Gill on Deu 12:16; see Gill on Deu 12:23; see Gill on Deu 12:24.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 15:23
“The frequent repetition of this caution intimates what need the people had of it, and what stress God laid upon it. What a mercy it is that we are not under this yoke! We are not dieted as they were; we make no difference between a first calf, or lamb, and the rest that follow.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lame and blind is the exact pair Malachi 1:8 throws back at priests who brought such animals to the altar. What cannot be sacrificed is eaten at home as common food, and the unclean and the clean eat it alike, as the roebuck and as the hart, which is the allowance already made at 12:15 and 12:22. The blood is held back and poured upon the ground as water, the rule of Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11-14 and Deuteronomy 12:16, and the one part of the sacrificial law the council at Acts 15:20 lays on Gentile believers.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 15. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.