Deuteronomy 15:13
in Deuteronomy 15And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty:
KJV
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
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This verse in Deuteronomy 15
Commentary
4 notes on this verseAnd 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.
This site's exposition
And if thy brother, an Hebrew man
on Deuteronomy 15:12-14
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.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
thou shalt not let him go away empty--A seasonable and wise provision for enabling a poor unfortunate to regain his original status in society, and the motive urged for his kindness and humanity to the Hebrew slave was the remembrance that the whole nation was once a degraded and persecuted band of helots in Egypt.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Thou shalt not let him go away empty - Because during the time he served thee, he made no property for himself, having been always honest towards thee; and now when he leaves thee, he has nothing to begin the world with.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
כי ימכר לך IF [THY BROTHER …] BE SOLD UNTO THEE by others (not one that sells himself as a servant on account of his destitution, of which case Scripture deals in Leviticus:46 ff); Scripture is speaking of one whom the court has sold for a theft that he has committed. But has it not already been stated.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְכִֽי־ | vekhi- | and if | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תְשַׁלְּחֶ֥נּוּ | teshallechenu | you will let go him | H7971 → | 845 times |
| חָפְשִׁ֖י | chafeshi | a free [person] | H2670 → | 17 times |
| מֵֽעִמָּ֑ךְ | meimakh | from with <the> you | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תְשַׁלְּחֶ֖נּוּ | teshallechenu | you will let go him | H7971 → | 845 times |
| רֵיקָֽם׃ | reikam | emptily | H7387 → |
וְכִֽי־and if
vekhi-H3588 →4482 times
תְשַׁלְּחֶ֥נּוּyou will let go him
teshallechenuH7971 →845 times
חָפְשִׁ֖יa free [person]
chafeshiH2670 →17 times
מֵֽעִמָּ֑ךְfrom with <the> you
meimakhH5973 →1050 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תְשַׁלְּחֶ֖נּוּyou will let go him
teshallechenuH7971 →845 times
רֵיקָֽם׃emptily
reikamH7387 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Malachi 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
it leads to
- James 5:8–9
You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
- James 5:4
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Deuteronomy 5:11
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- Deuteronomy 27:19
‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- James 5:8–9
Through
Genesis 31:42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen…
it leads to
- Psalms 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul.
- Isaiah 8:13
The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.
- Psalms 31:7
Through
Jeremiah 22:13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
it leads to
- Leviticus 19:13
You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Leviticus 19:13
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on 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 (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch.