Deuteronomy 15:2

וְזֶה דְּבַר הַשְּׁמִטָּה שָׁמוֹט כָּל־בַּעַל מַשֵּׁה יָדוֹ אֲשֶׁר יַשֶּׁה בְּרֵעֵהוּ לֹֽא־יִגֹּשׂ אֶת־רֵעֵהוּ וְאֶת־אָחִיו כִּֽי־קָרָא שְׁמִטָּה לַֽיהוָֽה׃

Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְזֶה֮ דְּבַ֣ר הַשְּׁמִטָּה֒ שָׁמ֗וֹט כָּל־בַּ֙עַל֙ מַשֵּׁ֣ה יָד֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר יַשֶּׁ֖ה בְּרֵעֵ֑הוּ לֹֽא־יִגֹּ֤שׂ אֶת־רֵעֵ֙הוּ֙ וְאֶת־אָחִ֔יו כִּֽי־קָרָ֥א שְׁמִטָּ֖ה לַֽיהוָֽה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ οὕτως τὸ πρόσταγμα τῆς ἀφέσεως. ἀφήσεις πᾶν χρέος ἴδιον ὃ ὀφείλει σοι ὁ πλησίον, καὶ τὸν ἀδελφόν σου οὐκ ἀπαιτήσεις· ἐπικέκληται γὰρ ἡ ἄφεσις Κυρίῳ τῳ θεῶ σου.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

quæ hoc ordine celebrabitur. Cui debetur aliquid ab amico vel proximo ac fratre suo, repetere non poterit, quia annus remissionis est Domini.

Spanish

Así se hará: todo acreedor liberará lo que haya prestado a su vecino. No exigirá el pago a su prójimo ni a su hermano, porque se ha proclamado la liberación de Yehová.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y esta es la manera de la remisión: perdonará á su deudor todo aquél que hizo empréstito de su mano, con que obligó á su prójimo: no lo demandará más á su prójimo, ó á su hermano; porque la remisión de Jehová es pregonada.

English

This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD ’s time of release has been proclaimed.

What the text says

Summary

The verse defines the practice of the shemittah ("remission", H8059): every creditor must release the loan he made to his fellow, and no one may press his neighbor or countryman for repayment, because a remission has been proclaimed for Yehovah.

Key words

  • she.mi.Tah ("remission", H8059) — feminine singular noun, appears twice (in construct with de.Var and again as the object of ka.Ra'), naming the institution being defined and then the act being proclaimed.
  • sha.Mot ("he will remit", H8058) — qal infinitive absolute, placed before the finite verbal idea to intensify or emphasize the certainty/totality of the remitting action; it has no separate subject of its own but reinforces the following clause about the ba.'al ("owner", H1167K).
  • ya.Sheh ("he will lend", H5383) — hiphil imperfect, causative form: the subject causes something (money/goods) to go out to another, i.e. "makes a loan," distinct from a simple qal "give."
  • yi.Gos ("he will press", H5065) — qal imperfect referring to exacting or dunning a debtor; negated by lo' ("not", H3808) to form the prohibition.
  • ka.Ra' ("someone has proclaimed", H7121I) — qal perfect, completed action, indicating that the proclamation of the shemittah is treated as an accomplished fact "for Yehovah" (la., H9005 + H3068G).

What the text says

The verse opens with ve.Zeh de.Var ha.shemi.Tah ("and this [is] the word/matter of the remission"), a nominal clause introducing a definition: what follows explains the content of the shemittah. The construct chain de.Var ha.shemi.Tah ("the matter of the remission") sets up a technical, almost legal heading, comparable to a case-law formula.

The core instruction uses the infinitive absolute sha.Mot followed grammatically by the notion of the creditor, kol-ba.'al ma.Sheh ya.D-o ("every owner of the loan of his hand"), a construct chain literally meaning "every possessor of a loan of his hand," i.e., every creditor. The relative clause 'a.Sher ya.Sheh be.re.'E-hu ("who lends to his neighbor") uses the hiphil ya.Sheh, marking the lending as a caused transaction. The prohibition lo'-yi.Gos 'et-re.'E-hu ve.'et-'a.Chi-v ("he shall not press his neighbor and his countryman") uses the direct object marker 'et (H0853) twice, marking both "his neighbor" (re.'E-hu) and "his countryman" ('a.Chi-v) as distinct objects of the verb yi.Gos, giving two parallel categories of person protected by the rule.

The final clause, introduced by ki ("for/if", H3588A), gives the reason: ka.Ra' she.mi.Tah la.Yehovah ("a remission has been proclaimed for/to Yehovah"), a perfect verb describing a completed proclamation, with the preposition la. attaching the remission to the divine name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the phrase without the "hand" idiom, speaking instead of πᾶν χρέος ἴδιον ("every private debt") owed by ὁ πλησίον ("the neighbor"), simplifying the Hebrew construct chain ma.Sheh ya.D-o. The Vulgate similarly shifts to a relative construction ("cui debetur aliquid ab amico vel proximo ac fratre suo"), naming three categories (amico, proximo, fratre) where the Hebrew names two (re.'E-hu, 'a.Chi-v). The LXX also adds τῳ θεῶ σου ("your God") after Κυρίῳ, an addition not present in the Hebrew text, which reads simply la.Yehovah.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.