Deuteronomy 15 · a question people ask
Were debts wiped out in the seventh year, or only let go for that year?
The chapter says, "At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts" (15:1), and "every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother" (15:2). It doesn't say whether payment could be asked again once the year was over. Christians read it in two main ways, each resting on verses. All agree that the release is "the LORD’s release" (15:2), and that the lender was not to hold back from the poor because the year was near (15:9).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Wiped out
Those who hold this view read "every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor" (15:2) as letting the debt go for good. They point to the warning of 15:9: a lender who thinks, "The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand", might "give him nothing" (15:9), a fear that fits a loan that would not come back. And they note that Moses tells the lender, "You shall surely give" (15:10).
Deuteronomy 15:2 · Deuteronomy 15:9-10
Let go for the year
Those who hold this view note that the verb for "release" (15:2) is the one Exodus uses for the land in the seventh year, where the WEB has "let it rest": "the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow" (Exodus 23:11), after "For six years you shall sow your land" (Exodus 23:10). The land was let alone for a year, not given away. On this reading the creditor lets the claim rest in that year, "He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother" (15:2), and 15:9 still warns against refusing a loan because a year without payment was near.
Deuteronomy 15:2 · Exodus 23:10-11 · Deuteronomy 15:9
The verses
“At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother, because the LORD’s release has been proclaimed.”
“Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin to you.”