Deuteronomy 15 Summary and Study Guide

Seven verses apart, Deuteronomy 15 promises that there will be no poor among you and then says the poor will never cease out of the land. That apparent clash is the first thing the chapter has to answer. This Deuteronomy 15 summary and study guide covers the year of release, the open hand, and the servant who chose not to go free.

Setting the Stage

Israel had been slaves. Egypt worked them for generations, and when God finally brought them out He did not send them away with nothing. They walked out carrying silver, gold and clothing their neighbours had handed them (Exodus 12:35-36).

Forty years later they are camped east of the Jordan, weeks away from owning land for the first time. Land means harvests, and harvests mean that some families do well and some do not. For the first time there will be Israelites with money and Israelites who owe it. Deuteronomy 15 is God writing the law for that situation before the situation exists.

Comprehensive Deuteronomy 15 Summary

Every seventh year, Israel was to cancel the debts owed between Israelites. The Hebrew word behind release means letting something drop, the same picture used for a field left unworked, and Moses calls it the LORD’s release rather than the lender’s, because God commanded it. A foreigner’s debt could still be collected. A fellow Israelite’s could not.

God intended that nobody in Israel should stay poor, and He promised to bless the land so richly that letting a debt go would not ruin the lender. That promise carried a condition, which was obedience, and a national result: Israel would lend to other nations and never need to borrow from them.

Then Moses turns from the ledger to the heart. A law that wipes out debts in year seven could make a man refuse to lend in year six, and God forbids that thought before it becomes a refusal. He names it a thought of a wicked heart, warns that the poor man’s cry reaches Him directly, and commands giving without a grudge.

The release applies to people too. An Israelite who had sold himself to pay a debt served six years and went free in the seventh, and his master was not allowed to send him out empty. Animals, grain and wine went with him, because that is how Israel had been sent out of Egypt. If the servant loved the household and asked to stay, an awl was driven through his ear into the door, and he stayed for life.

The chapter closes with the firstborn males of the herds and flocks. They belonged to God, so the owner could not plough with them or take their wool, and the family ate them before God each year at the place He chose. Anything with a serious defect was eaten at home instead of offered.

One Word Summary

• Release: the chapter’s own word for debts, servants and profit alike.
• Remember: every command here rests on Israel remembering Egypt.
• Open: the word God chooses for the hand He wants, and He uses it twice (vv. 8, 11).

In One Sentence

Moses tells Israel to cancel their brothers’ debts every seventh year, to give to the poor without calculating what it will cost them, to free Hebrew servants after six years and send them away loaded with provisions, and to give God the firstborn of every herd and flock.

Theme of Deuteronomy 15

Deuteronomy 15 is about released people releasing people. God brought Israel out of slavery and did not send them away empty, and He builds that same pattern into their calendar, their lending and their households. Three themes run alongside it.

God answers the costly commands in this chapter with promises of blessing. God governs the heart as well as the hand, which is why He forbids the calculation before it becomes a refusal. And everything Israel owned was God’s first, which is why the firstborn of the flock was never theirs to profit from.

Deuteronomy 15 Outline

• Deuteronomy 15:1-3: Every seventh year Israel must release the debts owed by fellow Israelites, though a foreigner’s debt may still be collected.
• Deuteronomy 15:4-6: God gives the purpose of the law, ties the promise to careful obedience, and pledges blessing so great that Israel will lend to many nations and borrow from none.
• Deuteronomy 15:7-8: Israel must not harden the heart or shut the hand against a poor brother, but lend him enough for his need.
• Deuteronomy 15:9-11: God forbids withholding a loan because the year of release is near, and commands open-handed giving without a grudging heart.
• Deuteronomy 15:12-15: A Hebrew man or woman sold into service serves six years, goes free in the seventh, and must be supplied from the flock, the threshing floor and the winepress.
• Deuteronomy 15:16-18: A servant who loves his master’s household may stay for life, marked by an awl thrust through his ear into the door, and a master must not resent freeing one who leaves, since the servant has been worth double a hired man.
• Deuteronomy 15:19-20: The firstborn males of herd and flock are set apart to God, neither worked nor shorn, and eaten before Him each year at the place He chooses.
• Deuteronomy 15:21-23: A firstborn with a serious defect is not sacrificed but eaten at home, and its blood is poured out on the ground.

The Awl at the Door

The chapter’s most striking scene is over in a moment and leaves a mark for life.

And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee; Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever.

Deuteronomy 15:16-17. If the servant tells his master he does not want to leave, because he loves the master and the household and has been well treated there, the master takes a pointed tool, drives it through the servant’s ear into the door, and the servant belongs to that household permanently.

The ceremony has five parts:

• The servant speaks first. The master does not propose it. Verse 16 puts the words in the servant’s mouth.
• He is already free when he asks. His six years are finished and verse 12 has released him. Nothing is being forced.
• He gives a reason, and the reason is love. He loves the master, he loves the house, and life there has been good.
• The mark is public and permanent. An ear driven through at a doorway is not a private arrangement, and the mark stays where it can be seen.
• A maidservant is included. Verse 17 ends by saying the same is to be done for her, and verse 12 already named a Hebrew woman alongside a Hebrew man. Bible teachers differ over whether “likewise” covers the ceremony itself or the generous provision of verses 13 and 14.

Exodus 21:6 adds a detail this chapter leaves out. The master first brought the servant before the judges, so the ceremony was witnessed and legal rather than something a household did to a person behind its own door.

And the doorway carried a memory for Israel, whose own release began at doorposts marked with blood on the night of the Passover (Exodus 12:7). The words “for ever” in verse 17 translate a Hebrew term for a long duration, and Jewish teachers understood it here as lasting until the man’s death or until the year of Jubilee.

Observations from Deuteronomy 15

God Says It Twice Wherever It Costs (verses 4, 8, 10, 11, 14)

Hebrew makes a command emphatic by using the same verb twice, and the King James translators carried that doubling into English wherever it appears. The chapter therefore reads “greatly bless” (v. 4), “surely lend” (v. 8), “surely give” (v. 10), “open thine hand wide” (vv. 8, 11), and “furnish him liberally” (v. 14). Every one of those falls where obedience costs the hearer money, which is exactly where a person is most tempted to look for the smallest amount that will do.

The Blessing Sits Beside the Cost (verses 4, 6, 10, 14, 18)

God’s blessing is named five times in twenty-three verses, and four of those are promises made to Israel for obeying: over the release of debts (v. 4), over the nation’s finances (v. 6), over giving to a poor brother (v. 10), and over letting a servant walk out free (v. 18).

The fifth is different and sets the standard for the leaving gift, since the master gives “of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee” (v. 14). Israel is never asked to let go of something in this chapter without being told who supplies the difference.

God Never Calls Him a Debtor (verses 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12)

The man who owes money in this chapter is called a neighbour and a brother, and the word brother lands on him in verses 2, 3, 7, 9, 11 and 12. In verse 11 the wording goes further: he is “thy brother”, “thy poor”, “thy needy”. God describes him by his relationship to the lender rather than by his balance. Once God has called him yours, refusing him is more than a business decision.

Freedom Without Provision Is Not Freedom (verses 13-14)

A servant released after six unpaid years would own nothing, and a man with nothing tends to end up back where he started. So God commands a leaving gift alongside the release, and He sets no figure. The measure is “of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee” (v. 14).

The verb behind “furnish him liberally” carries the picture of loading something onto a man’s neck, the way you would hang a chain or a garland on him. The master gives out of what God gave him, so the amount is decided by what he has rather than by what he can get away with.

Difficult Verses Explained

Does Deuteronomy 15:4 Contradict What the Chapter Says Seven Verses Later?

The two verses answer different questions, and the King James margin shows how. Verse 4 reads “Save when there shall be no poor among you”, and the margin renders the same Hebrew “to the end that there be no poor among you”. Read that way, verse 4 states what the law is for rather than forecasting the end of poverty.

Verse 5 then attaches a condition to the promise, “only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God”, so the outcome rests on Israel obeying. Verse 11 describes what will be true meanwhile. God gives the aim in one verse and the standing reality in the other, and the second keeps the command in force, since it runs straight on into “therefore I command thee”.

Were the Debts Cancelled for Good, or Only Left Uncollected for a Year?

Bible teachers have landed on both sides of this, and Scripture leaves the question open. The debts in view either way are the ones a poor Israelite took on to survive, since verses 4, 7 and 8 all frame the law around a brother in need rather than around trade or land. Some hold that the debt was wiped out permanently, pointing out that a lender would have little to fear in verse 9 if he were only waiting a year.

Others hold that the creditor had to stop pressing for payment during the seventh year, since the same Hebrew word describes leaving a field unworked in Exodus 23:11. What the chapter itself claims is clear either way: an Israelite could be held down by debt for six years at most, and every seven years the pressure stopped.

Does Deuteronomy 15:12 Approve of Slavery?

Deuteronomy 15:12 legislates a debt arrangement, which is a different thing from the trade most modern readers have in mind. An Israelite with nothing left to sell could sell his own labour, and this chapter puts a ceiling on it: six years, then freedom, with a compulsory leaving gift so the man has something to begin again with.

It names “an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman” together and gives them the same terms. Kidnapping a person and selling him carried the death penalty in the same law (Exodus 21:16; Deuteronomy 24:7). The chapter places a limit on a hard thing, and it licenses nothing beyond what it describes.

Is Deuteronomy 15:6 a Promise That I Will Never Have to Borrow?

Deuteronomy 15:6 is a promise made to Israel as a nation, and it is tied to the covenant rather than to individual finances. The same promise appears again in Deuteronomy 28:12 among the blessings for obedience, and its exact reverse appears in Deuteronomy 28:44, where the foreigner lends and Israel borrows. Reading it as a personal guarantee lifts it out of the covenant it belongs to. Read in place, it tells Israel that obeying God about debts would not leave the nation poorer.

Common Misunderstandings

• That the year of release is the Jubilee. They are two different laws. The release here falls every seventh year and concerns debts and servants. The Jubilee falls every fiftieth year and returns family land (Leviticus 25:8-13).
• That verse 11 lets us off. The verse is often quoted as though the permanence of poverty settles the argument. Its own next clause is a command, and when Jesus quoted it He kept the command attached: “whensoever ye will ye may do them good” (Mark 14:7).
• That “of a foreigner thou mayest exact it” is hostility to outsiders. The word describes a foreign national outside the covenant, and Bible teachers point out that his income was unaffected by Israel’s seventh year. The foreigner living among Israel is a different category, and Deuteronomy repeatedly commands Israel to feed him, love him and leave harvest behind for him (Deuteronomy 10:19; 14:29; 24:19-21).
• That the law was a loophole for the borrower. It was written for a man who could not pay, and Moses aims every warning in the chapter at the lender who might refuse him. Borrowing with no intention of repaying is a different act from being unable to repay.

Christ Connection

The whole chapter turns on one sentence: “thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee” (v. 15). Israel was to remember being bought out of slavery and then treat other people that way. Every command in this chapter rests on something God did first, and that is where the gospel puts obedience too. Christ bought His people at cost, and what they hand on to others takes its shape from what they were handed.

The clearest link runs through the word for release itself. When Jesus stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth and read from Isaiah, He read about proclaiming deliverance to captives and “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19), then told the room that the words were being fulfilled while they listened. The seventh year in Deuteronomy 15 cancelled what people owed each other. Jesus announced a release that goes further down, and the New Testament describes it as captives set free and sins forgiven.

Four connections carry this chapter toward Him:

• The cancelled debt. Paul describes the record of debt against us being blotted out and nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), which is a release no seventh year could reach, and Jesus taught His followers to pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
• The willing servant. A man who is free, owes nothing, and stays anyway because he loves the household pictures Christ, who “took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). Psalm 40:6-8 speaks of an opened ear and goes on, “Lo, I come… I delight to do thy will, O my God”, and Hebrews 10:7 puts that second line in Christ’s mouth as He comes into the world.
• The unblemished firstborn. The firstborn male, without defect, wholly God’s and never used for the owner’s profit, points toward “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).
• The people with nothing lacking. Luke writes of the first church that “neither was there any among them that lacked” (Acts 4:34). That reads like the outcome Deuteronomy 15:4 was aiming at, and it appeared among people the Spirit had come upon.

When, Where, and Why

• When: Near the end of the fortieth year after Israel left Egypt, in the eleventh month, weeks before they crossed the Jordan and shortly before Moses died (Deuteronomy 1:3).
• Where: The plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, across from Jericho. The land these laws are written for was still on the far side of the river, so the rules about harvests, creditors and debtors arrive before anyone has a field there to argue over.
• Why: Moses is preaching the law again to a generation that grew up in the wilderness. The chapter before this one closes by ordering a tithe stored up every third year for the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow (Deuteronomy 14:28-29), and chapter 15 carries that same concern into debts and servants. He puts the poor into the middle of the economy before the economy exists, and he grounds it all in Egypt, so that Israel would carry the memory of being rescued into the way they handled money and people.

Key Verses

Thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother.

Deuteronomy 15:7

Do not make your heart hard toward a poor fellow Israelite, and do not close your hand against him. The verse ties the hand to the heart, and it names the closed hand as evidence rather than as the problem itself.

Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee.

Deuteronomy 15:9

Watch out that you never think, the year debts are cancelled is nearly here, and so look at your poor brother grudgingly and give him nothing, because he will cry out to God about you and you will be guilty. God legislates against a piece of arithmetic here, and He treats the thought behind the refusal as part of what makes it sin.

Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

Deuteronomy 15:10

Give to him, and let your heart stay willing while you give, because God will bless everything you do on account of it. The manner of the giving is commanded alongside the giving, so a gift handed over with a grudge has not yet obeyed the verse.

For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

Deuteronomy 15:11

There will always be poor people in the land, so open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy. Jesus quoted the first half of this verse in the week before He died (Matthew 26:11; Mark 14:7; John 12:8), and the word standing between its two halves is “therefore”.

And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.

Deuteronomy 15:15

Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and God bought you out, and that is why He commands this. The same reason returns across Deuteronomy whenever the poor, the servant, the widow or the foreigner come up (Deuteronomy 5:15; 16:12; 24:18).

Key Lessons from Deuteronomy 15

• Watch what you work out in your head before a request ever reaches your hand, since verse 9 names that arithmetic as the place a refusal starts.
• A closed hand reports a hard heart, which is why verse 7 forbids both together as one act.
• Releasing someone without supplying him can leave him where he started, so verse 13 forbids sending a freed servant away empty.
• The measure of generosity here is what God has given the giver, not what the person asking can prove he deserves (v. 14).
• Let what God has already done set the terms for what you do for someone else, which is the reason verse 15 gives for all of this.
• Give God the first of a thing rather than what is left after you have used it, which is what verse 19 asks of every firstborn animal.

For the wider picture of where this chapter sits, see The Book of Deuteronomy Summary by Chapter. To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Deuteronomy 15.

Bible Study Questions

1. What exactly was to happen every seventh year according to verses 1 and 2, and whose name is attached to the act in verse 2?
2. Verse 9 forbids a thought. What is the thought, and why would God treat it as sin before anything has been done?
3. Set verse 4 beside verse 11 and read verse 5 between them. How does the condition in verse 5 hold the two statements together?
4. Verses 13 and 14 command a leaving gift but set no amount. What does the standard in verse 14 tell you about how the master was meant to decide?
5. What two reasons does the servant give in verse 16 for wanting to stay, and what do they tell you about the six years behind him?
6. Verse 15 gives the reason behind the whole chapter. Where might remembering what God has done change the way someone is treated?
7. Verse 19 puts the firstborn of the herd beyond the owner’s use. What would it look like today to hold something back from your own profit because it belongs to God first?

Frequently Asked Questions

Deuteronomy 15, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

2 And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’S release.

3 Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;

4 Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:

5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.

6 For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:

8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.

9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee.

10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

12 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.

13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:

14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.

15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.

16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee;

17 Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.

18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.

19 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.

20 Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household.

21 And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.

22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart.

23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.