When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
Show the surrounding paragraph
Deuteronomy 15:13-14 sits inside this longer paragraph.
At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother, because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. However there will be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess) if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today. For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks. Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land. If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you, then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you; for he has been double the value of a hired hand as he served you six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. If it has any defect—is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.
Parallel Translations
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When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty.
You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
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And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
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.
Show all 3 translations
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And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty;
thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress; of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (2)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (12)
- Proverbs 3:27-28 (v13) Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go, and come…
- Jeremiah 22:13 (v13) “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t…
- Malachi 3:5 (v13) I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the…
- Genesis 31:42 (v13) Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God…
- Exodus 3:21 (v13) I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it will happen that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed.
Show all 12 cross-references
- Leviticus 25:42-44 (v13) For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with…
- Nehemiah 8:10 (v14) Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy…
- Psalms 68:10 (v14) Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.
- Proverbs 10:22 (v14) Yahweh’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.
- Acts 20:35 (v14) In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he…
- 1 Corinthians 16:2 (v14) On the first day of every week, let each one of you save, as he may prosper, that no collections are made when I come.
- Colossians 4:1 (v13) Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v14 In token that thou dost acknowledge the benefit which…
In token that thou dost acknowledge the benefit which God hath given thee by his labors.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–14 And when thou sendest him out free from thee,....…
And when thou sendest him out free from thee,.... When he discharged him from his servitude, and made him a free man:
thou shall not let him go away empty; without anything to support himself, or to put himself in a way of business; he having in the time of his servitude worked entirely for his master, and so could not have got and saved anything for himself.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–14 Verse 13. Thou shalt not let him go away…
Verse 13. Thou shalt not let him go away empty] Because during the time he served thee, he made no property for himself, having been always honest towards thee; and now when he leaves thee, he has nothing to begin the world with.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally - The verb in…
Thou shalt furnish him liberally - The verb in the Hebrew is remarkable. It means “thou shalt lay on his neck,” “adorn his neck with thy gifts.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v14 Way. Hebrew literally, "Thou shalt put round his neck,…
Way. Hebrew literally, "Thou shalt put round his neck, (or furnish him abundantly) out of thy flock," &c. This is not specified in the Book of Exodus.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v13 thou shalt not let him go away empty--A seasonable…
thou shalt not let him go away empty--A seasonable and wise provision for enabling a poor unfortunate to regain his original status in society, and the motive urged for his kindness and humanity to the Hebrew slave was the remembrance that the whole nation was once a degraded and persecuted band of helots in Egypt. Thus, kindness towards their slaves, unparalleled elsewhere in those days, was inculcated by the Mosaic law; and in all their conduct towards persons in that reduced condition, leniency and gentleness were enforced by an appeal which no Israelite could resist.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v14 14. Thou shalt furnish him liberally — The Hebrew…
14. Thou shalt furnish him liberally — The Hebrew verb that is used makes the expression very emphatic, Thou shalt load him bountifully.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–14 13. empty] In Pent. only in E (Gen_31:42; Exo_3:21;…
13. empty] In Pent. only in E (Gen_31:42; Exo_3:21; Exo_23:15), J (Exo_34:20) and D (here, and Deu_16:16).
13, 14. Peculiar to D and characteristic of its philanthropy.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v14 (14) Thou shalt furnish him liberally.—The beneficence of this…
(14) Thou shalt furnish him liberally.—The beneficence of this provision is noticeable. Those who had fallen into poverty, when they had served their time, must be provided with means for a fresh start in life. And since the Jewish commentator regards the slavery of Hebrew men as chiefly a consequence of theft (If he be sold unto thee, “when the supreme court has sold him for his theft “), it would seem that, under Jewish law, even convicted thieves, when the term of their servitude was over, were to be provided with the means of obtaining an honest livelihood. This state of things is above the attainments of Christian England at the present date.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally; literally, shalt lay on…
Thou shalt furnish him liberally; literally, shalt lay on his neck, i.e. thou shalt load him. The meaning is well expressed in the Authorized Version. This is the new prescription added to the earlier law.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.