Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 15:1-11
Here is, I. A law for the relief of poor debtors, such (we may suppose) as were insolvent. Every seventh year was a year of release, in which the ground rested from being tilled and servants were discharged from their services; and, among other acts of grace, this was one, that those who had borrowed money, and had not been able to pay it before, should this year be released from it; and though, if they were able, they were afterwards bound in conscience to repay it, yet thenceforth the creditor should never recover it by law. Many good expositors think it only forbids the exacting of the debt in the year of release, because, no harvest being gathered in that year, it could not be expected t…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 15:7
If there be among you a poor man . . . thou shalt not harden thine heart--Lest the foregoing law should prevent the Israelites lending to the poor, Moses here admonishes them against so mean and selfish a spirit and exhorts them to give in a liberal spirit of charity and kindness, which will secure the divine blessing (Rom 12:8; Co2 9:7).
John Gill on Deuteronomy 15:10
Thou shall surely give him,.... Or lend to him; though lending in such a case and circumstances, that person being extremely poor, and the year of release at hand, is the same as giving. Jarchi remarks that money must be given him, even a hundred times if he asks it; but the limitation is to what he wants, and what is sufficient for his present wants, Deuteronomy 15:8.
and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; grieved at parting with his money he has little or no hope of seeing again, grudging it to him to whom it is given; when, on the other hand, it should he given freely and cheerfully, for God loves a cheerful giver:
because that for this thing the Lord thy God sh…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Deuteronomy 15:1-11
Deuteronomy 15:1-11
1. At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
1. Septimo quoque anno facies remissionem.
2. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbor, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release.
2. Haec autem est ratio remissionis, ut remittat omnis qui mutuum dederit manu sua, id quod mutuum dederit amico suo: non reposcet ab amico suo, aut a fratre suo, quia proclamata est remissio Jehovae.
3. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;
3. Ab alienigena reposces, aut quod fuerit…
