Parallel Bible results for "deuteronomy 15"

Deuteronomy 15

New Living Translation NLT

1 “At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money.

2 This is how it must be done. Everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the LORD ’s time of release has arrived.

3 This release from debt, however, applies only to your fellow Israelites—not to the foreigners living among you.

4 “There should be no poor among you, for the LORD your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession.

5 You will receive this blessing if you are careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today.

6 The LORD your God will bless you as he has promised. You will lend money to many nations but will never need to borrow. You will rule many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 “But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.

8 Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need.

9 Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the LORD, you will be considered guilty of sin.

10 Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.

11 There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need.

12 “If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.

13 “When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed.

14 Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the LORD your God has blessed you.

15 Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.

16 “But suppose your servant says, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and your family, and he has done well with you.

17 In that case, take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door. After that, he will be your servant for life. And do the same for your female servants.

18 “You must not consider it a hardship when you release your servants. Remember that for six years they have given you services worth double the wages of hired workers, and the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.

19 “You must set aside for the LORD your God all the firstborn males from your flocks and herds. Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work your fields, and do not shear the firstborn of your flocks.

20 Instead, you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the LORD your God each year at the place he chooses.

21 But if this firstborn animal has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or if anything else is wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

22 Instead, use it for food for your family in your hometown. Anyone, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat it, just as anyone may eat a gazelle or deer.

23 But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.

The Message Bible MSG

1 At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts.

2 This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled - God says so.

3 You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.

4 There must be no poor people among you because God is going to bless you lavishly in this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, your very own land.

5 But only if you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, diligently observing every commandment that I command you today.

6 Oh yes - God, your God, will bless you just as he promised. You will lend to many nations but won't borrow from any; you'll rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

7 When you happen on someone who's in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don't look the other way pretending you don't see him. Don't keep a tight grip on your purse.

8 No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs.

9 Don't count the cost. Don't listen to that selfish voice saying, "It's almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled," and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He'll call God's attention to you and your blatant sin.

10 Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God's, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures.

11 There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.

12 If a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life.

13 And when you set them free don't send them off empty-handed.

14 Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions from all the blessings with which God, your God, has blessed you.

15 Don't for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, redeemed you from that slave world. For that reason, this day I command you to do this.

16 But if your slave, because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, says, "I don't want to leave you,"

17 then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the doorpost, marking him as your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves who want to stay with you.

18 Don't consider this an unreasonable hardship, this setting your slave free. After all, he's worked six years for you at half the cost of a hired hand. Believe me, God, your God, will bless you in everything you do.

19 Consecrate to God, your God, all the firstborn males in your herds and flocks. Don't use the firstborn from your herds as work animals; don't shear the firstborn from your flocks.

20 These are for you to eat every year, you and your family, in the Presence of God, your God, at the place that God designates for worship.

21 If the animal is defective, lame, say, or blind - anything wrong with it - don't slaughter it as a sacrifice to God, your God.

22 Stay at home and eat it there. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat it, the same as with a gazelle or a deer.

23 Only you must not eat its blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.