Deuteronomy 15

## Summary Deuteronomy 15 legislates the seventh-year *shemittah* ("release", H8059): the cancellation of debts owed by fellow Israelites (vv. 1–11), the manumission of Hebrew bondservants after six years of service (vv. 12–18), and the dedication of firstborn male livestock to Yahweh, eaten only at the chosen sanctuary and only if unblemished (vv. 19–23). ## Key words - *shemittah* ("a remission", H8059) — appears repeatedly (vv. 1, 2, 9) as a feminine singular noun naming the institution itself, built on the root meaning "to let drop/release." - *evyon* ("needy [person]", H0034) — a masculine singular adjective used substantivally in vv. 4, 7, 9, 11 to designate the poor person who is the object of the release and lending laws. - *shamot* ("he will remit", H8058), infinitive absolute paired with a finite verb in v. 2 — this doubling construction intensifies the verbal idea, stressing that the creditor "shall surely remit." - *patoach tiftach* ("certainly to open / you will open", H6605A) — the same infinitive-absolute-plus-imperfect pattern in vv. 8 and 11, emphasizing the forcefulness of opening one's hand to the poor. - *marotsea* ("awl", H4836) in v. 17, a concrete masculine singular noun naming the instrument used to pierce the servant's ear against the door when he chooses to stay permanently. ## What the text says The chapter is organized by three legal units, each introduced by *ki* ("if/for/when", H3588A), a particle that functions here as a conditional-legal marker rather than a strict causal one. In vv. 1–11 the syntax repeatedly uses the infinitive absolute + finite verb pattern (*shamot... yigos*, *patoach tiftach*, *naton titten*) — a grammatical device that Hebrew uses to intensify or make emphatic the following verb, which no single English word fully reproduces; translations render it with adverbs like "surely" or "freely," or simply drop the intensification. Verse 2 identifies the person under obligation as *ba'al masheh yad* ("owner of the loan of his hand," H1167K + H4874 + H3027G), a construct chain literally describing "the master of the lending of his hand" — a periphrasis for "creditor" built from body-part imagery (hand) rather than an abstract financial term. The kinship terms *re'a* ("neighbor", H7453) and *ach* ("countryman/brother", H0251I) are used in parallel throughout (vv. 2–3, 7, 9, 11) to mark the boundary of the law: obligations toward the *nokhri* ("foreigner", H5237) in v. 3 are explicitly exempted from remission, while the fellow Israelite is not. The verbs describing action toward the poor are consistently second-person masculine singular imperfects or sequential perfects, addressing an individual "you" responsible for the community's practice, not a collective subject. ## Differences between versions In v. 9 the LXX adds the qualifier μεγάλη ("great") to ἁμαρτία ("sin"), rendering "great sin" where the Hebrew *chet'* (H2399) simply says "sin" without a modifying adjective; the Vulgate's *peccatum* likewise has no such qualifier.