Tyndale Open Study Notes

Verse 1

15:1-23 The Law included the regulation of borrowing and lending so that the poor could survive deprivation. It provided restrictions to allow the rich to minister to the needs of the poor without exploiting them.

15:1 cancel the debts: This technical term refers to releasing people in financial bondage from their creditors and from any penalty for their default.

Verse 2

15:2 The time of release was to occur every seventh year across the nation (the Sabbath year, Lev 25:1-7). The time frame followed the calendar rather than the length of the loan arrangement. This meant that the year of release could fall as soon as a year after a loan was made.

Verse 4

15:4 If Israel lived in perfect obedience to the covenant, there would be no poor in the nation. However, this ideal was never realized in ancient Israel, and poverty was very much an issue.

Verse 6

15:6 You will lend money to many nations: An obedient Israel would become an affluent nation able to provide international aid. This bounty would bear testimony to God’s promise to Abraham that his seed would be a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2-3; 17:4-6; 26:3-4).

Verse 11

15:11 The reality that there will always be some . . . who are poor in a fallen world is no excuse for indifference to their plight. Instead, it should emphasize the need for the rich to contribute to the well-being of the poor (Matt 26:6-13).

Verse 12

15:12 If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant: This arrangement allowed a debtor to work off financial obligations to a creditor. The limit of this arrangement was seven years (but see 15:16-17).

Verse 16

15:16 he loves you: In the context of a covenant, this phrase speaks of a binding relationship with both legal and emotional overtones.

Verse 17

15:17 push it through his earlobe: This disfigurement publicly indicated that a bondservant had voluntarily indentured himself to his master for life. This might be what Paul meant when he said “I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus” (Gal 6:17).

Verse 18

15:18 worth double the wages: Because a bondservant worked all day, every day, his output was more than that of a day laborer, who merely put in his shift.

Verse 19

15:19 The firstborn males of livestock represented the firstborn sons of Israel who had been spared from death in the tenth plague (Exod 12:12, 29; 13:2, 12; 22:29).

Verse 21

15:21 A defect was any imperfection that devalued an animal; it was no sacrifice to give up something that was of little or no worth to begin with (2 Sam 24:24).

Verse 23

15:23 The blood of an animal was seen as synonymous with its life, the most sacred of God’s creations, so it was sacrilegious to consume it (see 12:16).