Deuteronomy 15:1
in Deuteronomy 15At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
KJV
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
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This verse in Deuteronomy 15
Commentary
6 notes on this verseAt 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.
This site's exposition
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts
on Deuteronomy 15:1-3
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
At the end - That is, in the last year of the seven, as is, most evident from ver. 9. And this year of release, as it is, called below, ver. 9, is the same with the sabbatical year, Exod. xxiii, 11.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-9-anchored-1-1
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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).
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release - For an explanation of many things in this chapter, see the notes on Exodus 21 (note), Exodus 23 (note), and Leviticus 25 (note).
Modern Voices1 voice
A commentator
Jonathan CahnChrist in Prophecy interview: Jonathan Cahn on the Shemitah (Lamb & Lion Ministries) (2015)
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.
The words behind it
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִקֵּ֥ץ | miketz | from [the] end of | H7093 → | 67 times |
| שֶֽׁבַע־ | sheva'- | seven | H7651 → | 394 times |
| שָׁנִ֖ים | shanim | years | H8141 → | 877 times |
| תַּעֲשֶׂ֥ה | taaseh | you will observe | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| שְׁמִטָּֽה׃ | shemitah | a remission | H8059 → | 5 times |
מִקֵּ֥ץfrom [the] end of
miketzH7093 →67 times
שֶֽׁבַע־seven
sheva'-H7651 →394 times
שָׁנִ֖יםyears
shanimH8141 →877 times
תַּעֲשֶׂ֥הyou will observe
taasehH6213 →2628 times
שְׁמִטָּֽה׃a remission
shemitahH8059 →5 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
7 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
Exodus 21:2If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 15:12–15
If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.
- Exodus 12:44
But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.
- Deuteronomy 15:18
Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless…
- Exodus 22:3
But if it happens after sunrise, there is guilt for his bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution; if he has nothing, he himself shall be sold for his theft.
- Nehemiah 5:8
and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!”…
- Deuteronomy 15:12–15
Through
Deuteronomy 31:10Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles,
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 15:1–2
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
- Leviticus 23:34–43
“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days.
- Deuteronomy 15:1–2
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this verse
On this chapter
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Jonathan Cahn, Christ in Prophecy interview: Jonathan Cahn on the Shemitah (Lamb & Lion Ministries).