992 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Deuteronomy 15 This chapter treats of a release of debts every seventh year, to which a blessing is promised if attended to, Deuteronomy 15:1, which seventh year of release should not hinder lending to a poor man in distress, even though it was nigh at hand, Deuteronomy 15:7 and of letting servants go free, whether manservant or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. Not of servants, for they were not to be dismissed from their service until they had served six years, as is directed to in a following law; for if they were to be set free whenever a sabbatical year came, they might be discharged when they had not served more than a year, or than half a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And this is the manner of the release,.... Or the rules to be observed in making it: every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; that is, forgive the debt, or free the debtor from any obligation to payment. Some think this was only a release of debts for this year, in which there was no ploughing nor sowing, and so a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ver. 5 Only if thou carefully hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God,.... In his word, and by his prophets; this being the case, there would be no more poor among them, or however they would be so blessed of God, that they would be capable of releasing the debts of the poor, without hurting themselves and their families: to observe to do all...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee,.... He is faithful that has promised, and he always gives the blessing he promises according to the nature of the promise; if absolute, and without conditions, he gives it without respect to any; but if conditional, as the promises of temporal good things to Israel were, he gives according...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren,.... As there would be, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, if they did not keep the commandments of the law, and continue therein: within any of thy gates, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; a native of the land was to be preferred to a foreigner, and a brother,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him,.... And give him bountifully and liberally; in order to which the heart must be first opened, the affections moved, and a willing mind disposed to give generously: and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth: enough to answer his present exigencies, but not to cause him...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart,.... "Or, thy heart of Belial" (f); thy worthless heart, and which is without a yoke not subjected to the law of God, as every carnal heart is; and in which Belial, Satan, the prince of this world, works effectually, and inclines to evil thoughts, afflictions, and desires, which are to be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the poor shall never cease out of the land,.... There would be always such objects to exercise their charity and beneficence towards, John 12:8, which is no contradiction to Deuteronomy 15:4 for had they been obedient to the laws of God, they would have been so blessed that there would have been none; so the Targums; but he foresaw that they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee,.... By others, as by the sanhedrim for theft, for which a man might be sold, but not a woman, as Jarchi observes; but then a father might sell his daughter for an handmaid, if little and under age; and to such cases this law is supposed to refer; see Exodus 21:2 though a man...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when thou sendest him out free from thee,.... When he discharged him from his servitude, and made him a free man: thou shall not let him go away empty; without anything to support himself, or to put himself in a way of business; he having in the time of his servitude worked entirely for his master, and so could not have got and saved anything...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt furnish him liberally,.... Not only to supply his present wants, but for his future use, and to set him up in the world: "loading thou shall load him" (h), so some render the words; give him as much as he can carry, and well stand up under; the word used has the signification of chains wore about the neck for honour or ornament, and so...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt,.... Where they were used hardly, and their lives were made bitter in hard bondage; and therefore should show the greater compassion to servants, whose case they could not but sympathize with, and have a fellow feeling of and the Lord thy God redeemed thee; from the house of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee,.... Out of his house, nor quit his service: because he loveth thee and thine house; his master and his family, and so loath to leave them, but chooses rather to stay with them than have his liberty; hence the Jews say (k), if his master has not a wife and children, his ear is not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then thou shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door,.... Not of his master's house, but of the sanhedrim, or court of judicature, according to the Targum of Jonathan, before whom he was to be brought, and declare his desire to continue with his master; [See comments on Exodus 21:6], and he shall be thy servant for ever; that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
It shall not seem hard to thee when thou sendest him away free from thee,.... He should not grudge him his liberty, nor what he gives to him when he dismisses him: for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee in serving thee six years; since a hired servant a man is obliged to pay him wages for his work, besides his food, whereas a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
All the firstling males that come of thy herd, or of thy flock, thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God,.... According to the law in Exodus 13:2. [See comments on Exodus 13:2]; [See comments on Exodus 13:12]; [See comments on Exodus 13:13]; thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock: as to plough or tread out the corn with it, which...