Deuteronomy 15:4 Komentář

In this chapter Moses gives orders, I. Concerning the release of debts, every seventh year (Deu 15:1-6), with a caution that this should be no hindrance to charitable lending (Deu 15:7-11). II. Concerning the release of servants after seven years' service (Deu 15:12-18). III. Concerning the sanctification of the firstlings of cattle to God (Deu 15:19, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 15 This chapter treats of a release of debts every seventh year, to which a blessing is promised if attended to, Deu 15:1, which seventh year of release should not hinder lending to a poor man in distress, even though it was nigh at hand, Deu 15:7 and of letting servants go free, whether manservant or maidservant, at the end of six years' servitude, Deu 15:12 but if unwilling to go, and desirous of staying, must have his ear bored through with an awl, and serve to the year of jubilee, Deu 15:16 and of sanctifying and eating the firstlings of the herd and flock where the Lord directs, Deu 15:19.

Save when there shall be no poor among you,.... Then such a law could not take place, there would be no debts to be released; for this was never designed to screen rich persons from the payment of their just debts, or whoever were in a capacity of so doing, only such as were really poor, and unable to pay; and it supposes that this might sometimes be the case, that there were none poor in Israel, or needed the benefit of such a law; and, according to the Targum of Jonathan, it is suggested there would be none, if they were observant of the commands of God: and some take it for a promise, rendering the words "nevertheless" (c), notwithstanding such a law: there shall be no poor among you; but then it must be understood conditionally: others interpret this as the end to be answered by this law, "to the end (d) there may be no poor among you"; by observing this law, all debts being released once in seven years, it would prevent persons falling into distress and poverty, to such a degree as to be in want, and become beggars; and Julian the emperor observes, that none of the Jews begged (e), which he attributes to the care that was taken of their poor: for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it; which is either a reason why there would be no poor, should they observe the commandments of the Lord; or a reason why they should release the debts of the poor because they were so greatly blessed with a fruitful land, which brought them such an increase, as enabled them to free their poor debtors, when in circumstances unable to pay them. (c) "veruntamen", Munster. (d) "To the end that there be not", Ainsworth; so the margin of the Bible. (e) Opera, par. 2. Ep. 49. p. 204.

THE SEVENTH YEAR, A YEAR OF RELEASE FOR THE POOR. (Deu 15:1-11) At the end of every seven years--during the last of the seven, that is, the sabbatical year (Exo 21:2; Exo 23:11; Lev 25:4; Jer 34:14).

Save when there shall be no poor man among you--Apparently a qualifying clause added to limit the application of the foregoing statement [Deu 15:3]; so that "the brother" to be released pointed to a poor borrower, whereas it is implied that if he were rich, the restoration of the loan might be demanded even during that year. But the words may properly be rendered (as on the Margin) to the end, in order that there may be no poor among you--that is, that none be reduced to inconvenient straits and poverty by unseasonable exaction of debts at a time when there was no labor and no produce, and that all may enjoy comfort and prosperity, which will be the case through the special blessing of God on the land, provided they are obedient.

On the Year of Release. - The first two regulations in this chapter, viz., Deu 15:1-11 and Deu 15:12-18, follow simply upon the law concerning the poor tithe in Deu 14:28-29. The Israelites were not only to cause those who had no possessions (Levites, strangers, widows, and orphans) to refresh themselves with the produce of their inheritance, but they were not to force and oppress the poor. Debtors especially were not to be deprived of the blessings of the sabbatical year (Deu 15:1-6). "At the end of seven years thou shalt make a release." The expression, "at the end of seven years," is to be understood in the same way as the corresponding phrase, "at the end of three years," in Deu 14:28. The end of seven years, i.e., of the seven years' cycle formed by the sabbatical year, is mentioned as the time when debts that had been contracted were usually wiped off or demanded, after the year's harvest had been gathered in (cf. Deu 31:10, according to which the feast of Tabernacles occurred at the end of the year). שׁמטּה, from שׁמט morf ,, to let lie, to let go (cf. Exo 23:11), does not signify a remission of the debt, the relinquishing of all claim for payment, as Philo and the Talmudists affirm, but simply lengthening the term, not pressing for payment. This is the explanation in Deu 15:2 : "This is the manner of the release" (shemittah): cf. Deu 19:4; Kg1 9:15. "Every owner of a loan of his hand shall release (leave) what he has lent to his neighbour; he shall not press his neighbour, and indeed his brother; for they have proclaimed release for Jehovah." As שׁמוט (release) points unmistakeably back to Exo 23:11, it must be interpreted in the same manner here as there. And as it is not used there to denote the entire renunciation of a field or possession, so here it cannot mean the entire renunciation of what had been lent, but simply leaving it, i.e., not pressing for it during the seventh year. This is favoured by what follows, "thou shalt not press thy neighbour," which simply forbids an unreserved demand, but does not require that the debt should be remitted or presented to the debtor (see also Bhr, Symbolik, ii. pp. 570-1). "The loan of the hand:" what the hand has lent to another. "The master of the loan of the hand:" i.e., the owner of a loan, the lender. "His brother" defines with greater precision the idea of "a neighbour." Calling a release, presupposes that the sabbatical year was publicly proclaimed, like the year of jubilee (Lev 25:9). קרא is impersonal ("they call"), as in Gen 11:9 and Gen 16:14. "For Jehovah:" i.e., in honour of Jehovah, sanctified to Him, as in Exo 12:42. - This law points back to the institution of the sabbatical year in Exo 23:10; Lev 25:2-7, though it is not to be regarded as an appendix to the law of the sabbatical year, or an expansion of it, but simply as an exposition of what was already implied in the main provision of that law, viz., that the cultivation of the land should be suspended in the sabbatical year. If no harvest was gathered in, and even such produce as had grown without sowing was to be left to the poor and the beasts of the field, the landowner could have no income from which to pay his debts. The fact that the "sabbatical year" is not expressly mentioned, may be accounted for on the ground, that even in the principal law itself this name does not occur; and it is simply commanded that every seventh year there was to be a sabbath of rest to the land (Lev 25:4). In the subsequent passages in which it is referred to (Deu 15:9 and Deu 31:10), it is still not called a sabbatical year, but simply the "year of release," and that not merely with reference to debtors, but also with reference to the release (Shemittah) to be allowed to the field (Exo 23:11).

"Only that there shall be no poor with thee." יהיה is jussive, like the foregoing imperfects. The meaning in this connection is, "Thou needest not to remit a debt to foreigners in the seventh year; thou hast only to take care that there is no poor man with or among thee, that thou dost not cause or increase their poverty, by oppressing the brethren who have borrowed of thee." Understood in this way, the sentence is not at all at variance with Deu 15:11, where it is stated that the poor would never cease out of the land. The following clause, "for Jehovah will bless thee," etc., gives a reason for the main thought, that they were not to press the Israelitish debtor. The creditor, therefore, had no need to fear that he would suffer want, if he refrained from exacting his debt from his brother in the seventh year.