The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Seventh Year
Deuteronomy 15:1–6 — The Seventh Year. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
miq·qêṣ še·ḇa‘- šā·nîm ta·‘ă·śeh šə·miṭ·ṭāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
From-the-end of-seven years you-shall-make a-release.
Where the English smooths the original
a release ] or remission , Heb. shemiṭṭah from shamaṭ , to let drop ( 2 Kings 9:33 ; let her drop ) or lapse : Exodus 23:11 , thou shalt let it (the land or its crop) lapse , i.e. lie fallow; Deuteronomy 15:3 of a debt.Cambridge anchors the keyword shemittah in its root shamaṭ and its two registers — letting the land lie fallow (Exod 23:11) and letting a debt lapse (here); the verbal bridge the threads confirm.
שׁמטּה, from שׁמט morf ,, to let lie, to let go (cf. Exodus 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.K&D take the minority position — suspension, not cancellation — explicitly against Philo and the Talmud; Gill and the Geneva gloss read it the other way. The synthesis reports the dispute rather than settling it.
This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord; and by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins.Henry's typological reading — release of debts as pardon of sins, the sabbatical year as the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:19) — is the seam the Christ section opens.
The Law in this place is an extension of that which we find in Exodus 21:2 , &c, and Leviticus 25:3 , &c., There was not only to be a manumission of Hebrew slaves and a Sabbath for the land in the seventh year, but also a release of debts, of which all the Israelites must have the benefit.
2This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·zeh də·ḇar haš·šə·miṭ·ṭāh kāl- ba·‘al maš·šêh yā·ḏōw šā·mō·wṭ ’ă·šer yaš·šeh bə·rê·‘ê·hū lō- yig·gōś ’eṯ- rê·‘ê·hū wə·’eṯ- ’ā·ḥîw kî- Yah·weh šə·miṭ·ṭāh qā·rā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-this is the-word of-the-release: every master of-a-loan of-his-hand shall-let-drop what he-has-lent against-his-neighbor; he-shall-not press his-neighbor and his-brother, because a-release for-Yahweh has-been-proclaimed.
Where the English smooths the original
Exact it of his neighbor ; literally, press or urge his neighbor , i . e . to pay. It is called the Lord's release ; rather, a release for Jehovah is proclaimed ; the sabbatical year, like the year of jubilee, was proclaimed, and it was for Jehovah, in his honor, and in accordance with his ordinance.The Pulpit Commentary unfolds both the driving-verb (press or urge his neighbor) and the proclamation — a release cried aloud for Jehovah, like the jubilee.
Shall release it; not absolutely and finally forgive it, but forbear it for that year, as may appear, 1. Because the word doth not signify a total dismission or acquitting , but an intermission for a time, as Exodus 23:11 . He shall not exact it , as it here follows, i.e. force it from him by course of law or otherwise, to wit, that year, which is easily understood out of the whole context.Poole argues the minority reading — suspension, not cancellation — from the word itself and from Exod 23:11; against Gill's full-remission view on the same verse.
Now this was typical of a release of debts, or of forgiveness of sins, which is an act of God's grace through Christ, and for his sake. Sins are called debts, not what men owe to God, for then it would be right to commit them, and they might be committed with impunity, yea, with praise, since it would be doing what is fit and right, and well pleasing to God; but men are debtors to fulfil the law, and in case of failure, or a breach of it, are bound to the debt of punishment; and these debts are very numerous, and men are incapable of paying them: and by a release of these is meant not a liberty of sinning, nor a freedom from the being or bondage of sin, but from the guilt of it, and from obligation to punishment for it; and is properly the forgiveness of sin, which is expressed by various phrases, as a non-imputation, a non-remembrance, a covering, blotting out, and removing of sin, and here typically a release of debts; see Matthew 6:12Gill draws the explicit type — debt-release as forgiveness of sins, citing Matthew 6:12 and Luke 7:41 — the figural seam the Christ section develops.
Because it is called the Lord's release - Render, because proclamation has been made of the Lord's release. The verb is impersonal, and implies (compare Deuteronomy 31:10 ) that "the solemnity of the year of release" has been publicly announced.Barnes corrects the passive — the verb is impersonal and active: the release was publicly cried, the basis for tying this verse to Deut 31:10's reading of the law every shemittah.
3You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’eṯ- tig·gōś han·nā·ḵə·rî taš·mêṭ yā·ḏe·ḵā wa·’ă·šer ’ā·ḥî·ḵā yih·yeh lə·ḵā ’eṯ-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
The-foreigner you-may-press; but what is yours with your-brother your-hand shall-let-drop.
Where the English smooths the original
נכרי is a stranger of another nation, standing in no inward relation to Israel at all, and is to be distinguished from גּר, the foreigner who lived among the Israelites, who had a claim upon their protection and pity. This rule breathes no hatred of foreigners, but simply allows the Israelites the right of every creditor to demand his debts, and enforce the demand upon foreigners, even in the sabbatical year.K&D fix the lexical distinction nokrî / gêr and defend the verse against the charge of xenophobia — the foreigner kept his ordinary seventh-year income, so kept his ordinary liability.
foreigner ] nokrî distinct not only from neighbour - or brother-Israelite , but also from gçr the foreign client or settler in Israel ( Deuteronomy 14:21 ).Cambridge gives the three-way Hebrew taxonomy — brother, resident gêr, outside nokrî — that BSB's single word foreigner cannot carry.
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 promised; but those who are foreigners and strangers, and are not the Lord's chosen, redeemed, and called people, have no share in this blessing of graceGill reads the brother/foreigner line typologically — the release belongs to God's own people; a particularist reading the synthesis reports without endorsing as the verse's plain civil sense.
4There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yih·yeh- lō ’eḇ·yō·wn bə·ḵā ’e·p̄es kî kî- Yah·weh ḇā·rêḵ yə·ḇā·reḵ·ḵā bā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā nō·ṯên- lə·ḵā lə·riš·tāh na·ḥă·lāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Only that there-shall-not-be among-you a-poor-man — for Yahweh will-surely-bless you in the-land which Yahweh your-God is-giving you to-possess-it as-an-inheritance,
Where the English smooths the original
Save when there shall be no poor (man) among you. —This clause is the source of a very interesting passage in the Acts of the Apostles, Deuteronomy 4:34 , “Great grace was upon them all, for neither was there among them any ( one ) that lacked” The words at the beginning of the verse in Hebrew, “save when” may also be rendered (as in the Margin) “to the end that,” or “to such an extent that there shall be no poor man among you.”Ellicott himself draws the line forward to Acts 4:34 — the Jerusalem church where 'neither was there any that lacked' as the answering of this verse's ideal; the Christ section develops it. (His ref-label 'Deuteronomy 4:34' is a typo for Acts 4:34, the text he quotes.)
There is no inconsistency between this and Deuteronomy 15:11 . The meaning seems simply to be, "Thou must release the debt for the year, except when there be no poor person concerned, a contingency which may happen, for the Lord shall greatly bless thee." The general object of these precepts, as also of the year of Jubilee and the laws respecting inheritance, is to prevent the total ruin of a needy person, and his disappearance from the families of Israel by the sale of his patrimony.Barnes harmonizes v. 4 with v. 11 and names the social engine of the whole law-cluster — release, jubilee, inheritance — as a hedge against a family's ruin.
They may also be translated thus, Nevertheless of a truth , or assuredly , (as the particle chi is oft used,) there shall be no poor along you ; and the sense may be this, Though I impose this law upon you, which may seem hard and grievous, yet the truth is, supposing your performance of the conditions of God’s covenant, you shall not have any great occasion to exercise your charity and kindness in this matter, for God will greatly bless youPoole gives the third reading — the clause as promise, not exception — and the answer to the v. 11 tension: the poor remain only because Israel will forfeit the blessing by disobedience.
"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."K&D parse the verb as jussive and read the clause as a charge not to manufacture poverty by oppressive lending — the obverse of the v. 2 prohibition on pressing the brother.
5if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’im- raq šā·mō·w·a‘ tiš·ma‘ bə·qō·wl Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā liš·mōr la·‘ă·śō·wṯ ’eṯ- kāl- haz·zōṯ ’ă·šer ham·miṣ·wāh ’ā·nō·ḵî mə·ṣaw·wə·ḵā hay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
if only hearing you-hear the-voice of-Yahweh your-God, to-keep to-do all this commandment which I am-commanding-you today.
Where the English smooths the original
Only if thou carefully hearken. —“Then there will be none among thee in want.” So Rashi expounds, in the very spirit of the passage in Acts 4.Ellicott again names the Acts 4 horizon — Rashi's own reading of the conditional points to the community where none is in want, the church of Acts 4:34.
This blessing, though promised and certified, should come only if they were careful to observe and do all that God commanded them. The for at the beginning of ver. 6 connects this with ver. 4.The Pulpit Commentary names the structural function of v. 5 — the conditional clause binding the promise of v. 4 to the blessing of v. 6.
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 these commandments which I command thee this day; a phrase often used to put them in mind of the commands of God, and the necessity of keeping them, their temporal happiness depending thereon.Gill grounds the no-poor promise in obedient hearing of God's word and prophets; the blessing is conditional on the shâmaʻ of v. 5.
6When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî- Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā bê·raḵ·ḵā ka·’ă·šer dib·ber- lāḵ wə·ha·‘ă·ḇaṭ·tā rab·bîm wə·’at·tāh gō·w·yim ṯa·‘ă·ḇōṭ lō ū·mā·šal·tā rab·bîm ū·ḇə·ḵā bə·ḡō·w·yim yim·šō·lū lō
Literal — word-for-word from the original
For Yahweh your-God has-blessed you as He-promised you; and-you-shall-lend-on-pledge to many nations but you-yourself shall-not borrow, and-you-shall-rule over many nations but over-you they-shall-not rule.
Where the English smooths the original
As he promised thee. —“1 will bless thee” was said to Abram ( Genesis 12:2 ). Thou Shalt lend. —The root of the word in Hebrew is closely connected with the word for “slave.” “The borrower is servant to the lender” ( Proverbs 22:7 ).Ellicott ties the promised blessing back to Abraham (Gen 12:2) and forward to Proverbs 22:7 — the lender's freedom over against the borrower's servitude, the root of the mâshal thread.
"And thou wilt lend on pledge to many nations, but thou thyself wilt not borrow upon pledge." עבט, a denom. verb, from עבוט, a pledge, signifies in Kal to give a pledge for the purpose of borrowing; in Hiphil, to cause a person to give a pledge, or furnish occasion for giving a pledge, i.e., to lend upon pledge. "And thou wilt rule over many nations," etc. Ruling is mentioned here as the result of superiority in wealthK&D parse the pledge-verb ʻâbaṭ and link wealth to dominion — lending makes ruling; the lexical ground of the Proverbs 22:7 thread.
It is striking, however, that the fulfilment of D’s promise was most fully realised not while Israel remained on their own land but after their dispersion among the nations, from the Greek period onwards.Cambridge notes the historical irony — the promise of financial preeminence was most fully realised not in the land but in the dispersion; Cambridge elsewhere on this verse marks the promise as peculiar to Deuteronomy, paralleled at Deut 28:12.
and thou shalt reign over many nations: which was fulfilled in the times of David and Solomon: but they shall not reign over thee; that is, as long as they observed the commands of God; otherwise, when they did not, they were carried captive into other countries, and other people reigned over them, as at this day.Gill dates the fulfilment to David and Solomon and names the condition — dominion held by obedience, lost by sin and captivity.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The whole unit turns on a single rare Hebrew noun — shemittah (H8059), which the Verifier finds in only four verses of the Bible, all of them in this law-cluster (Deut 15:1, 2, 9; 31:10). Cambridge traces it to its root: “shemiṭṭah from shamaṭ, to let drop or lapse.” The same verb makes the land “lie fallow” at Exodus 23:11 and lets a debt “lapse” here. The commentators are unanimous that the law extends the sabbatical year — Ellicott: “an extension of that which we find in Exodus 21:2… and Leviticus 25:3”; JFB and Benson identify it flatly with “the sabbatical year.” But over the force of the word they divide sharply. Keil & Delitzsch take the minority line — the shemittah “does not signify a remission of the debt… as Philo and the Talmudists affirm, but simply lengthening the term, not pressing for payment” — and Poole marshals four arguments for the same: the word means only “an intermission for a time,” the man is still “a creditor,” the year had no harvest to pay from, and total remission would clash with “pay what they borrow” (Ps 37:21). Gill and the Geneva Bible read it the fuller way, a true forgiveness. The synthesis reports the dispute and does not arbitrate it: the bare Hebrew word, as the voices show, will bear both a suspension and a cancellation. (All claims sourced — Cambridge on the etymology, K&D and Poole for suspension, Gill/Geneva for remission; the framing of the keyword as the unit's hinge is the synthesis author's.)
The moral architecture of the law lives in a single verb deployed twice. Nâgas (H5065) means not “collect” but “to drive” — Strong's lists the driving of “an animal, a workman, a debtor, an army”; the Pulpit Commentary glosses it “press or urge.” It is the taskmaster's word. Toward the brother, v. 2 forbids it absolutely (“he shall not press his neighbour”); toward the foreigner, v. 3 permits it (“the foreigner thou mayest press”). Everything hangs on which kind of stranger is meant, and here the Hebrew is precise where English is not. Cambridge and Keil both insist the nokrî of v. 3 is “a stranger of another nation, standing in no inward relation to Israel at all,” sharply distinct from the gêr, the resident alien who “had a claim upon their protection and pity.” Keil defends the verse against the modern charge of xenophobia: “This rule breathes no hatred of foreigners,” for the foreigner kept his ordinary seventh-year income and so kept his ordinary liability. The release is poor-relief among kin, not a blanket abolition of credit — which is why Benson restricts even the brother-debt to the genuinely needy, since cancelling a solvent trader's loan “could have been nothing more absurd.” (The nâgas / nokrî distinction is Cambridge's and Keil's verbatim; the reading of the doubled verb as the law's moral pivot is the synthesis author's.)
Verse 4's astonishing claim — “there shall be no poor among you” — sits in open tension with verse 11 (“the poor will never cease”), and the voices spend their strength reconciling the two. Three readings survive. Barnes harmonizes by exception: release the debt “except when there be no poor person concerned, a contingency which may happen.” Benson and the AV margin read purpose: “to the end that there be no poor among you.” Poole reads sheer promise: “assuredly there shall be no poor… for God will greatly bless you,” the poor remaining only because Israel will forfeit the blessing by disobedience. Cambridge, weighing the grammar, sides against softening it to a mere wish: the Hebrew “uses the positive form of the vb.,” stating “not so much what should be as what shall be, if only Israel obeys the law.” That if only is verse 5's whole burden — raq (H7535), the isolating particle on which the entire promise of plenty turns, married to the doubled Shema-verb “hearing you shall hear.” And verse 6 caps it with a blessing spoken in the perfect tense — K&D: “the blessing is represented… as one already bestowed according to the counsel of God” — Israel lending on pledge to nations and never borrowing, ruling and never ruled. Yet even this Gill ties back to the same condition: dominion fulfilled “in the times of David and Solomon,” but held only “as long as they observed the commands of God.” The blessing funds the command (Poole: God blesses “so as you shall be in a capacity of lending”); the command is forfeit if the blessing is presumed apart from obedience. (Barnes, Benson, Poole, Cambridge, K&D, and Gill are each cited for their own claim; the synthesis frames the unit as promise-conditioned-on-obedience, which is the voices' shared structure.)
Read on its own terms, Deuteronomy 15:1–6 is the Sabbath let loose from the soil and laid upon the ledger. The seventh year that gives the land rest (Exod 23:11; Lev 25:4) now gives the debtor rest: every seven years a shemittah is cried aloud “for Yahweh” (v. 2), and the creditor's hand, the very hand that lent, lets the debt drop (v. 3). The law's center of gravity is mercy among kin: the driving-verb nâgas that may be used on a foreigner may never be used on a brother. And the law is breathtakingly confident — there shall be no poor among you — yet it stakes that confidence entirely on a single word, raq, only / if only you hear. The honest tension the passage leaves standing is the one the commentators circle without dissolving: a society with no poor (v. 4) and a society where the poor never cease (v. 11), held together only by Israel's fidelity. A fallible reader notices that the law commands a generosity it cannot itself guarantee — it can legislate the release, but it cannot produce the open hand that v. 7–11 will go on to plead for. So the passage points beyond itself: to a release not cried every seventh year but “the acceptable year of the Lord” proclaimed once for all (Luke 4:19, the text Matthew Henry reads straight out of this one), and to a community in which the ideal of v. 4 actually came true — the church where “neither was there among them any that lacked” (Acts 4:34), the very verse Ellicott names as this clause's fulfilment. The shemittah is the shadow; the forgiveness of debts that is the pardon of sins (Gill, on v. 2) is the substance.
The seventh year could cry release over a debt, but it could not open the fist that held it — for that, the law waits on an acceptable year it cannot itself proclaim. (an interpretive line, not Scripture)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The keyword of the unit, shemittah (H8059), is genuinely rare: the Verifier finds it in only 4 verses of the Hebrew Bible, and they form a tight internal chain — Deut 15:1, 15:2, and 15:9, plus Deut 31:10, where Moses commands that this law be read aloud to all Israel “at the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release (shemittah).” Because the lexeme is so scarce, its recurrence is a true verbal link, not a coincidence of common vocabulary; the Verifier returns Deut 15:1 ↔ 15:9 and 15:1 ↔ 31:10 as verbal on the strength of shared shᵉmiṭṭâh (4 vv) together with shebaʻ (seven) and shâneh (year). Barnes draws the line to 31:10 himself at v. 2, noting the release was “publicly announced.” The chain shows the release was no private arrangement but a nationally proclaimed institution, re-read into the people's hearing every seven years.
Deuteronomy 15:9 · Deuteronomy 31:10
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew; rare shared lexeme H8059 shᵉmiṭṭâh (in only 4 vv) joins Deut 15:1 to Deut 15:9 and Deut 31:10, with H7651 shebaʻ + H8141 shâneh (and H7093 qêts with 31:10) — Verifier-confirmed verbal on the scarcity of shemittah
Beneath the noun stands the verb the release is built from: shâmaṭ (H8058), “to fling down, let drop, let lie” — which the Verifier finds in only 8 verses. It appears in this unit at v. 2 (“he shall let drop”) and v. 3 (“your hand shall let drop”), and its rarity makes its other occurrences a real lexical web. The two anchors the commentators themselves name: Exodus 23:11, where the verb lets the land lie fallow — Cambridge: “thou shalt let it (the land or its crop) lapse, i.e. lie fallow” — which K&D call the controlling parallel (“points unmistakeably back to Exodus 23:11”); and, vividly, 2 Kings 9:33, where the same verb is the eunuchs' “throw her down” as Jezebel is let drop from the window. One root spans the gentlest of mercies (a debt let go) and the most violent of judgments (a queen flung down) — the Hebrew imagination of release as a hand simply opening and letting fall. ⚙ The honest qualification: this is a shared rare lexeme, not one text quoting another; the tier rests on the word's scarcity, and the Exodus 23:11 link in particular is the verbal parent the voices argue, not a citation.
Exodus 23:11 · 2 Kings 9:33 · Deuteronomy 15:3
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew; rare shared lexeme H8058 shâmaṭ (in only 8 vv) links Deut 15:2/3 to Exod 23:11 (the fallow-field parent K&D and Cambridge name) and 2 Kings 9:33 — Verifier returns verbal on rarity, but these are shared-lexeme resonances, NOT one text citing another
The mechanics of the loan are named by two scarce verbs. At v. 2 the creditor lends with nâshâh (H5383, “to lend on security or interest”) — a word the Verifier finds in only 11 verses — which binds this release-law verbally to Deuteronomy 24:10, the law governing how a creditor may take a pledge: “When thou dost lend (nâshâh) thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.” The Verifier confirms Deut 15:2 ↔ 24:10 as verbal on shared nâshâh together with rêaʻ (neighbour). At v. 6 a second rare verb, ʻâbaṭ (H5670, “to pawn,” only 4 vv), promises Israel will lend on pledge to the nations and never borrow — K&D parse it precisely. The two pledge-verbs frame the unit: it opens with the loan that must be released among brothers and closes with the loan Israel will extend, in plenty, to the nations. The same Deuteronomic code that forbids pressing the poor brother (15:2–3; 24:10–13) foresees Israel as creditor to the world.
Deuteronomy 24:10 · Deuteronomy 15:8
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew; rare shared lexeme H5383 nâshâh (in only 11 vv), with H7453 rêaʻ, links Deut 15:2 to the pledge-law of Deut 24:10; the v. 6 pledge-verb H5670 ʻâbaṭ (only 4 vv) ties to Deut 15:8 — Verifier-confirmed verbal on the scarcity of both verbs
Verse 6's promise that Israel will “rule (mâshal) over many nations but be ruled by none” shares its governing verb with the proverb the commentators reach for instinctively: “The rich ruleth (māshal) over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov 22:7) — which Ellicott quotes directly at v. 6, noting that the Hebrew lending-word is “closely connected with the word for slave.” The Verifier confirms the link by shared mâshal (H4910). ⚙ But mâshal is a moderately common word (74 vv), not a rare quotation-lexeme, so the Verifier tiers this structural / thematic, not verbal: it is the same wisdom-motif reused — wealth as dominion, debt as servitude — rather than one text citing another. The same verb and motif also stand behind the parallel blessing-and-curse of Deut 28:1, 12 (where lending-to-nations recurs almost verbatim), which the Verifier links on shared gôwy (nations). The thread is the Deuteronomic theology of debt: to lend is to rule, to borrow is to be ruled — and Israel's promised freedom is, at root, the freedom of the unindebted.
Proverbs 22:7 · Deuteronomy 28:12 · Deuteronomy 28:1
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew; shared verb H4910 mâshal (74 vv) ties Deut 15:6 to Prov 22:7 (Ellicott quotes it) — moderate frequency, so the debt-dominion motif is Verifier-tiered structural not verbal; the Deut 28:12/28:1 parallel shares H1471 gôwy (511 vv), likewise structural
The brother/foreigner distinction of v. 3 is not unique to this law; it recurs in Deuteronomy's interest-law, Deut 23:20 — “Unto a foreigner (nokrî) thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury.” The Verifier links Deut 15:3 ↔ 23:20 on shared nokrî (H5237, 45 vv) together with ’âch (brother) and yâd (hand). ⚙ Nokrî is more distinctive than a common word but still not rare enough for the verbal tier, and the words travel together as a recurring legal formula, so the Verifier tiers it structural / thematic. The two laws are the same coin: in both, the foreigner stands outside the covenant economy of mercy — he may be charged interest (23:20) and pressed for debt in the seventh year (15:3) — while the brother is shielded from both. Cambridge's three-way taxonomy (brother / resident gêr / outside nokrî) governs the whole code. The historical breach of this very release shows up at Jeremiah 34:14, where the same seven-year shemittah-release of Hebrew slaves is recalled as a covenant Israel “hearkened not” to.
Deuteronomy 23:20 · Jeremiah 34:14
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew; shared lexeme set H5237 nokrî (45 vv) + H251 ʼâch + H3027 yâd links Deut 15:3 to the interest-law Deut 23:20 — recurring legal formula, not a rare quotation-lexeme, so Verifier-tiered structural; the Jer 34:14 tie shares only the common qêts/shebaʻ/shâneh of v. 1, a thematic recall of the breached release
Jeremiah 34:14 recalls a seventh-year release as a covenant the nation took up and then betrayed: in Zedekiah's siege the people proclaimed liberty to their Hebrew slaves, then “turned, and caused the servants… to return.” The commentators on this unit treat Jer 34:14 as the historical witness that the release was real, national, and binding — JFB and Benson both cite it to fix the meaning of “at the end of seven years.” ⚙ But the verbal tie is thinner than it looks. The rare lexeme shemittah (H8059) is present in this unit at vv. 1 and 2 — yet the Verifier finds it is not present in Jeremiah 34:14, whose release of slaves is named with other vocabulary (dᵉrôr / shâlach, liberty / sending-away), not the debt-release word shemittah. So Deut 15:1 and Jer 34:14 share only the high-frequency seven-year formula — qêts (end), shebaʻ (seven), shâneh (year) — which the Verifier accordingly tiers structural / thematic, not verbal. The connection is historically and thematically strong (Jeremiah remembering a broken sabbatical-year release), but its provenance as a quotation-link is contestable, so the synthesis flags it: the tie is argued from the commentators and a shared idiom, not asserted as a rare-word citation the lexemes do not support.
Jeremiah 34:14
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew; Deut 15:1 ↔ Jer 34:14 share only high-frequency H7093 qêts (62 vv) + H7651 shebaʻ (343 vv) + H8141 shâneh (646 vv) — the rare shemittah (H8059) is in Deut 15:1/2 but NOT in Jer 34:14, whose slave-release uses dᵉrôr/shâlach, not shemittah; Verifier tiers the pair structural on the shared seven-year formula. The thematic tie (Jeremiah recalling a breached sabbatical-year release) is strong, but as a verbal/quotation link it is contested; flagged so the basis is argued, not asserted
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Matthew Henry reads the whole unit through one New Testament lens: “This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord; and by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins.” The phrase “the acceptable year of the Lord” is Isaiah's (Isa 61:2) and, in Luke 4:18–19, the text the risen Christ read in the Nazareth synagogue and declared “this day fulfilled in your ears.” ⚙ The figural reading the church has long drawn: the sabbatical release of debts and the jubilee liberty (Lev 25) are the shadow of which Christ's proclaimed “liberty to the captives” is the substance — a release cried not every seventh year but once, finally, in his own person. The link is cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew), so it rests on no shared Strong's number — the Verifier finds none between Deut 15:2 and Luke 4:18–19 — but on the theology Isaiah, Luke, and Matthew Henry together open. Henry's reading is the ancient and widely-held one; the synthesis simply names the texts.
Luke 4:18-19 · Isaiah 61:1-2 · Leviticus 25:10
Gill, at v. 2, draws the type explicitly: the release “was typical of a release of debts, or of forgiveness of sins, which is an act of God's grace through Christ, and for his sake. Sins are called debts… and here typically a release of debts; see Matthew 6:12.” The New Testament makes the metaphor central: the Lord's Prayer asks “forgive us our debts (ta opheilêmata)” (Matt 6:12), and Jesus tells of the creditor who “frankly forgave” two debtors who “had nothing to pay” (Luke 7:41–42), and of the servant whose vast debt the king “forgave” outright (Matt 18:27). ⚙ The shemittah's logic — a debt the debtor cannot pay, let drop by the creditor's own hand “for Yahweh” (v. 2) — is exactly the grammar of grace: God the “chief Creditor” (Poole) releasing what we owe and cannot pay. Cross-Testament; the Verifier finds no shared lexeme between Deut 15:2 and Matt 6:12, so the link rests on the debt-and-release metaphor the Hebrew law supplies and the Gospel fills. Gill's reading is ancient and widely-held.
Matthew 6:12 · Luke 7:41-42 · Matthew 18:27
Ellicott, at v. 4, names the fulfilment of “there shall be no poor among you” outright: “This clause is the source of a very interesting passage in the Acts of the Apostles… ‘Great grace was upon them all, for neither was there among them any one that lacked’” (Acts 4:34). And Ellicott reads v. 5's Rashi the same way — “in the very spirit of the passage in Acts 4.” ⚙ The synthesis follows the line the voice opens: the Mosaic ideal of a community with no destitute member, conditioned on obedience and never quite realized under the Law, is portrayed in Acts as actually achieved by the Spirit-filled church, where the believers “had all things common” and “distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.” The shemittah legislated a release the people would not keep (Jer 34:14); the gospel produces the open hand the law could only command (cf. v. 7–11). The link is cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) — no shared Strong's number — and rests on the verbal-conceptual echo Ellicott himself draws (no poor → none that lacked). Ancient and widely-held, on the authority of the voice that names it.
Acts 4:34 · Acts 2:44-45
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is the opening of Deuteronomy's law of the seventh year, and the synthesis is built up from the Hebrew. Every commentary excerpt is a verbatim, contiguous substring of the sourced voices_raw — trimmed at the ends to a pointed quotation, never altered, reordered, paraphrased, or stitched. A few honesty notes specific to Deuteronomy 15:1–6:
One disputed word governs the unit. The keyword shemittah / shâmaṭ will bear two readings, and the voices genuinely split: Keil & Delitzsch and Poole argue it means only a suspension of the debt for the fallow year (explicitly against “Philo and the Talmudists”); Gill and the Geneva Bible read a full remission. The literal column and the divergences preserve the ambiguity rather than resolving it; BSB's “cancel debts” already takes the remission side. The synthesis reports the dispute and does not arbitrate it.
Cross-reference tiers, and where rarity does and does not mean citation. Two lexemes genuinely earn the verbal tier on scarcity: shemittah (H8059, 4 vv) chains Deut 15:1/2/9 to 31:10, and shâmaṭ (H8058, 8 vv) ties vv. 2–3 to Exod 23:11 and 2 Kings 9:33 — but the badges say plainly these are shared rare lexemes, not one text quoting another; the Exod 23:11 link in particular is the fallow-field parent the voices argue (K&D, Cambridge), not a formal citation. The pledge-verbs nâshâh (11 vv) and ʻâbaṭ (4 vv) likewise link the release-law to Deut 24:10 verbally on rarity. By contrast the debt-dominion motif (Prov 22:7), the lend-to-nations parallel (Deut 28:12), and the foreigner/interest law (Deut 23:20) share only moderate- or high-frequency words traveling as recurring formulae, so they are Verifier-tiered structural/thematic, under-claiming where frequency makes a unique quotation unprovable.
The Jeremiah 34:14 link is flagged. The commentators (JFB, Benson) cite Jer 34:14 to fix the meaning of the seven-year release, and the thematic tie — Jeremiah remembering a broken sabbatical-year release — is real and important. The rare shemittah lexeme (H8059) is present in this unit (vv. 1 and 2); but the Verifier finds it is not present in Jer 34:14, whose slave-release is named with other words (dᵉrôr/shâlach), so the two verses share only the common qêts/shebaʻ/shâneh seven-year formula and the Verifier tiers the pair structural, not verbal. As a verbal/quotation link its provenance is therefore contestable, and the synthesis deliberately under-claims to flagged — verify source: the connection is argued from the commentators and a shared seven-year idiom, not asserted as a rare-word citation the lexemes do not support.
Cross-Testament links are not verbal. All three Christ notes — the shemittah as the “acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18–19; Matthew Henry's own reading), the release of debts as forgiveness of sins (Matt 6:12; Gill's own reading), and the no poor ideal fulfilled in the church (Acts 4:34; Ellicott's own reading) — are cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) and so cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers; the Verifier returns no shared lexeme across the Testaments for any of them. Each rests on a connection a PD voice on this very unit opens (Henry, Gill, Ellicott), and all three are marked ancient/widely-held, not novel. This unit is Deuteronomy 15:1–6; it does not contain a verse 1:5, so the standing Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 flag does not apply here.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)