Deuteronomy 15:1

The Sabbatic Year

1 "¹At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.

Deuteronomy 15:1 Meaning and Commentary

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. Indeed when the year of jubilee intervened, they were released be it at what time it would; but not in a sabbatical year, which was a year of release of debts, as the following verses show, as well as there was, then a rest of the land from tillage, ( Leviticus 25:2-4 ) . Now this was done at the end or extremity of every seventh year; not at the latter end or extremity of it, for if the debt of a poor man might be exacted of him in the year, and until the end of it, it would not in this respect have been a sabbatical year, or a year of rest and quiet; but this was done at the first extremity of it, at the beginning of it, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech observe; though Maimonides ^F2 asserts it to be after the seven years were ended; for he says,

``the seventh year releaseth not monies but at the end of it,''

according to ( Deuteronomy 15:1 ) that as in ( Deuteronomy 31:10 ) after seven years is meant, so the release of monies is after seven years.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Hilchot Shemittah & Yobel, c. 9. sect. 4.

Deuteronomy 15:1 In-Context

1 "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.

2 "This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the LORD'S remission has been proclaimed.

3 "From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.

4 "However, there will be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,

5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 31:10

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "make a release"