Septimo anno facies remissionem,

As each seventh year comes round, there shall be a cancelling of debts,

In the seventh year thou shalt make a remission,

quæ hoc ordine celebrabitur. Cui debetur aliquid ab amico vel proximo ac fratre suo, repetere non poterit, quia annus remissionis est Domini.

and thus it shall be ordered; now that the Lord has granted discharge, no one shall demand repayment of money lent to his fellow-citizen, his fellow-Israelite.

Which shall be celebrated in this order. He to whom any thing is owing from his friend or neighbour or brother, cannot demand it again, because it is the year of remission of the Lord,

A peregrino et advena exiges: civem et propinquum repetendi non habebis potestatem.

From an alien that has come to dwell in the land thou mayst exact it, but thy own fellow-countryman must be granted discharge.

Of the foreigner or stranger thou mayst exact it: of thy countryman and neighbour thou shalt not have power to demand it again.

Et omnino indigens et mendicus non erit inter vos: ut benedicat tibi Dominus Deus tuus in terra, quam traditurus est tibi in possessionem.

No one among you must be destitute, begging his bread, if the Lord is to grant thee his blessing in the land he means to give thee for thy own.

And there shall be no poor nor beggar among you: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land which he will give thee in possession.

Si tamen audieris vocem Domini Dei tui, et custodieris universa quæ jussit, et quæ ego hodie præcipio tibi, benedicet tibi, ut pollicitus est.

Bless thee he will, as he has promised, if only thou wilt listen to his voice and observe all the commandments I enjoin upon thee this day;

Yet so if thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep all things that he hath ordained, and which I command thee this day, he will bless thee, as he hath promised.

Fœnerabis gentibus multis, et ipse a nullo accipies mutuum. Dominaberis nationibus plurimis, et tui nemo dominabitur.

so that many nations shall be thy debtors, and none thy creditor, many thy servants, and none thy master.

Thou shalt lend to many nations, and thou shalt borrow of no man. Thou shalt have dominion over very many nations, and no one shall have dominion over thee.

Si unus de fratribus tuis, qui morantur intra portas civitatis tuæ in terra quam Dominus Deus tuus daturus est tibi, ad paupertatem venerit, non obdurabis cor tuum, nec contrahes manum,

It may be that one of thy brethren, thy fellow-citizen in the land the Lord thy God means to give thee, will fall on evil days. Do not steel thy heart and shut thy purse against him:

If one of thy brethren that dwelleth within thy gates of thy city in the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, come to poverty: thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor close thy hand,

sed aperies eam pauperi, et dabis mutuum, quo eum indigere perspexeris.

be generous to his poverty, and lend him what thou seest he stands in need of.

But shalt open it to the poor man, thou shalt lend him, that which thou perceivest he hath need of.

Cave ne forte subrepat tibi impia cogitatio, et dicas in corde tuo: Appropinquat septimus annus remissionis: et avertas oculos tuos a paupere fratre tuo, nolens ei quod postulat mutuum commodare: ne clamet contra te ad Dominum, et fiat tibi in peccatum.

And here a base thought may come into thy mind, which thou must put away from thee; that the seventh year, the year of discharge, is too close at hand. Do not, at such a time, turn thy back on this brother of thine, and refuse to lend him what he would fain borrow; his plea will come before the Lord, and thou wilt be held guilty.

Beware lest perhaps a wicked thought steal in upon thee, and thou say in thy heart: The seventh year of remission draweth nigh; and thou turn away thy eyes from thy poor brother, denying to lend him that which he asketh: lest he cry against thee to the Lord, and it become a sin unto thee.

Sed dabis ei: nec ages quippiam callide in ejus necessitatibus sublevandis, ut benedicat tibi Dominus Deus tuus in omni tempore, et in cunctis ad quæ manum miseris.

Lend freely, and use no craft in relieving his necessities; so at all times, to whatever employment thou dost turn thy hand, the blessing of the Lord thy God will be with thee.

But thou shalt give to him: neither shalt thou do any thing craftily in relieving his necessities: that the Lord thy God may bless thee at all times, and in all things to which thou shalt put thy hand.

Non deerunt pauperes in terra habitationis tuæ: idcirco ego præcipio tibi, ut aperias manum fratri tuo egeno et pauperi, qui tecum versatur in terra.

For indeed there will be no lack of poor men in the land that is to be thy home; I must needs warn thee, then, to be open-handed towards thy brother, thy fellow-countryman, when he is poor and in want.

There will not be wanting poor in the land of thy habitation: therefore I command thee to open thy hand to thy needy and poor brother, that liveth in the land.

Cum tibi venditus fuerit frater tuus Hebræus aut Hebræa, et sex annis servierit tibi, in septimo anno dimittes eum liberum:

When any of thy own race, Hebrew men and women, are sold to thee as slaves and have worked for thee six years, in the seventh year thou shalt set them at liberty.

When thy brother a Hebrew man, or Hebrew woman is sold to thee, and hath served thee six years, in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free:

et quem libertate donaveris, nequaquam vacuum abire patieris:

And the freed slave must not be allowed to go away empty-handed;

And when thou sendest him out free, thou shalt not let him go away empty:

sed dabis viaticum de gregibus, et de area, et torculari tuo, quibus Dominus Deus tuus benedixerit tibi.

make provision for him out of flock and threshing-floor and wine-press the Lord has blessed for thee.

But shalt give him for his way out of thy flocks, and out of thy barnfloor, and thy winepress, wherewith the Lord thy God shall bless thee.

Memento quod et ipse servieris in terra Ægypti, et liberaverit te Dominus Deus tuus, et idcirco ego nunc præcipio tibi.

Do not forget that thou too wast a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God ransomed thee; there is good cause for the command I now lay upon thee.

Remember that thou also wast a bondservant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God made thee free, and therefore I now command thee this.

Sin autem dixerit: Nolo egredi: eo quod diligat te, et domum tuam, et bene sibi apud te esse sentiat:

But it may be he will refuse to leave thee, for the love he bears to thee and to thy household, and for the happiness he finds in thy service.

But if he say: I will not depart: because he loveth thee, and thy house, and findeth that he is well with thee:

assumes subulam, et perforabis aurem ejus in janua domus tuæ, et serviet tibi usque in æternum. Ancillæ quoque similiter facies.

Take an awl, then, and bore through his ear with it into the door of thy house, in token that he is thy slave in perpetuity; and for a maid-servant do the like.

Thou shalt take an awl, and bore through his ear in the door of thy house, and he shall serve thee for ever: thou shalt do in like manner to thy womanservant also.

Non avertas ab eis oculos tuos, quando dimiseris eos liberos, quoniam juxta mercedem mercenarii per sex annos servivit tibi: ut benedicat tibi Dominus Deus tuus in cunctis operibus quæ agis.

But if thou dost let them go free, do not turn thy back on them; for six years they have been earning a workman’s hire. So the Lord thy God shall bless all thy enterprises.

Turn not away thy eyes from them when thou makest them free: because he hath served thee six years according to the wages of a hireling: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works that thou dost.

De primogenitis, quæ nascuntur in armentis, et in ovibus tuis, quidquid est sexus masculini, sanctificabis Domino Deo tuo. Non operaberis in primogenito bovis, et non tondebis primogenita ovium.

Thou shalt set apart for the Lord thy God all the first-born of thy cattle and sheep; the calf must never feel the yoke, the lamb never be shorn;

Of the firstlings, that come of thy herds and thy sheep, thou shalt sanctify to the Lord thy God whatsoever is of the male sex. Thou shalt not work with the firstling of a bullock, and thou shalt not shear the firstlings of thy sheep.

In conspectu Domini Dei tui comedes ea per annos singulos in loco quem elegerit Dominus, tu et domus tua.

year by year thou wilt come to the place the Lord has chosen, with all thy household, and feast upon such offerings in the presence of the Lord thy God.

In the sight of the Lord thy God shalt thou eat them every year, in the place that the Lord shall choose, thou and thy house.

Sin autem habuerit maculam, vel claudum fuerit, vel cæcum, aut in aliqua parte deforme vel debile, non immolabitur Domino Deo tuo:

But if any beast has a blemish, or is lame or blind or misshapen or maimed in any way, it cannot be offered to the Lord thy God;

But if it have a blemish, or be lame, or blind, or in any part disfigured or feeble, it shall not be sacrificed to the Lord thy God.

sed intra portas urbis tuæ comedes illud: tam mundus quam immundus similiter vescentur eis, quasi caprea et cervo.

eat it, then, within thy own city gates, and bid whom thou wilt, defiled or undefiled, to share it with thee, as if it were the flesh of red deer or roe,

But thou shalt eat it within the gates of thy city: the clean and the unclean shall eat them alike, as the roe and as the hart.

Hoc solum observabis, ut sanguinem eorum non comedas, sed effundes in terram quasi aquam.

being careful only not to eat the blood with it; that must be poured out like water on the ground.

Only thou shalt take heed not to eat their blood, but pour it out on the earth as water.