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 15:3
Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again--Admission to all the religious privileges of the Israelites was freely granted to heathen proselytes, though this spiritual incorporation did not always imply an equal participation of civil rights and privileges (Lev 25:44; Jer 34:14; compare Ch1 22:2; Ch2 2:17).
John Gill on Deuteronomy 15:3
Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again,.... Either on the seventh year, or after it:
but that which is thine with thy brother, thine hand shall release; a debt that lies between them, where the one is the creditor, and the other debtor, the creditor shall freely and fully forgive the debtor. So those only are released or forgiven by the Lord who are his own, whom he has reserved for himself, or chosen to everlasting life; who are interested in the covenant of his grace, one article in which is the forgiveness of sins; and who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, a branch of which redemption is remission of sin; and who are called by grace, and believe in Christ, to whom pardon of sins is…
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…
