DEUTERONOMY - Chapter 15

"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called YAHWEH's release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, except when there may be no poor among you; for YAHWEH will greatly bless you in the land which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving you to possess as an inheritance—only if you carefully obey the voice of YAHWEH your Elohim, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For YAHWEH your Elohim will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

"If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. Beware lest there 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 out to YAHWEH against you, and it become sin among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing YAHWEH your Elohim will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, 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. And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what YAHWEH has blessed you with, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YAHWEH your Elohim redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers 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 send him away free from you; for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then YAHWEH your Elohim will bless you in all that you do.

"All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall sanctify to YAHWEH your Elohim; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

"You and your household shall eat it before YAHWEH your Elohim year by year in the place which YAHWEH chooses. But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to YAHWEH your Elohim. You may eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

Chapter 16

"Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to YAHWEH your Elohim, for in the month of Abib YAHWEH your Elohim brought you out of Egypt by night. Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to YAHWEH your Elohim, from the flock and the herd, in the place where YAHWEH chooses to put His name. You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

"You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which YAHWEH your Elohim gives you; but at the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall roast and eat it in the place which YAHWEH your Elohim chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to YAHWEH your Elohim. You shall do no work on it.

"You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to YAHWEH your Elohim with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as YAHWEH your Elohim blesses you. You shall rejoice before YAHWEH your Elohim, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to make His name abide. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

"You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to YAHWEH your Elohim in the place which YAHWEH chooses, because YAHWEH your Elohim will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

"Three times a year all your males shall appear before YAHWEH your Elohim in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before YAHWEH empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of YAHWEH your Elohim which He has given you.

"You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which YAHWEH your Elohim gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

"You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving you.

"You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to YAHWEH your Elohim. You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which YAHWEH your Elohim hates.

Chapter 17

"You shall not sacrifice to YAHWEH your Elohim a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to YAHWEH your Elohim.

"If there is found among you, within any of your gates which YAHWEH your Elohim gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of YAHWEH your Elohim, in transgressing His covenant, who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones.

"Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

"If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which YAHWEH your Elohim chooses. And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.

"You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which YAHWEH chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.

"Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before YAHWEH your Elohim, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

"When you come to the land which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,' you shall surely set a king over you whom YAHWEH your Elohim chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for YAHWEH has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.' Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

"Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear YAHWEH his Elohim and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. 

HalleluYah!