Deuteronomy 15:3

Summary

The verse contrasts two categories of debtor: a nokhri ("foreigner") from whom the addressee may press for payment, and an 'achikha ("your countryman/brother") whose debt the addressee's own hand must release. The sentence sets up a legal distinction based on relationship to the debtor.

Key words

• nokhri ("foreigner", H5237) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a noun, marking the debtor who falls outside the release requirement.
• tigos ("you will press", H5065) — Qal imperfect, second person masculine, describing an ongoing/future permitted action (pressing for repayment).
• 'achikha ("your countryman", H0251I) — construct noun with 2nd person masculine singular suffix ("your brother/countryman"), the counterpart to the foreigner.
• tashmet ("let it release", H8058) — Hiphil jussive, third person feminine, a causative form expressing that the subject (the hand) is to cause a release, not simply "release" passively.
• yadekha ("your hand", H3027G) — construct noun with 2nd person masculine singular suffix, the grammatical subject of tashmet, making "the hand" (not "you" directly) the agent of releasing.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel clauses joined by va ("and", H9002), which here functions contrastively ("but"). The first clause places the object 'et-hanokhri ("the foreigner") before the verb tigos ("you will press"), a common Hebrew word-order device that foregrounds the foreigner as the topic under discussion. The second clause opens with the relative construction 'asher yihyeh lekha ("that which will belong to you"), followed again by the object marker 'et plus 'achikha ("with your countryman"), before the verb tashmet ("let it release"). Notably, the grammatical subject of tashmet is not "you" but yadekha ("your hand"), and the verb is feminine to agree with "hand" (a feminine noun in Hebrew) rather than with the masculine addressee. This means the Hebrew literally states that "your hand" — not "you" as a person — is the one releasing the debt, a nuance lost when translations render it simply as "you must forgive" or "your hand shall release" in a paraphrastic way.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate splits hanokhri into two terms, "peregrino et advena" ("foreigner and stranger"), where the Hebrew has a single word, nokhri (H5237). The Vulgate also replaces the image of "your hand" releasing the debt with an abstract legal statement, "repetendi non habebis potestatem" ("you will not have power to demand it back"), diverging from the Hebrew's body-part imagery centered on yadekha ("your hand", H3027G). The LXX likewise shifts the grammatical subject: instead of "your hand" releasing, it reads "you shall make a release of your debt" (ἄφεσιν ποιήσεις), assigning the action to "you" rather than to "the hand" as the Hebrew verb tashmet (H8058) grammatically requires.