What Does Deuteronomy 15:13 Mean?
And when you send him out unbound from you, you shall not send him away empty.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb sends him free and sends him away, joining freedom to what he carries into his next life.
THE MEANING
When someone leaves your authority, their freedom includes a material beginning, not only a changed status. The verse does not call the departure complete while the person goes away empty-handed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that freedom is complete as soon as a bond ends, even if the freed person is left without means to continue.
THE ROOT
תְּשַׁלְּחֶנּוּ
teshallĕḥennû
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
To send forth, send away, or release.
“send him out unbound” in this verse is teshallĕḥennû. The same verb appears twice: he is sent free, and he must not be sent away empty. That repetition joins freedom to the conditions of departure; bare release is not the whole picture.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It echoes the act of release and makes the departure itself part of the verse’s concern.
shaluach: Sent or dispatched; a sent one.
שָׁלוּחַ
It keeps the focus on the person who goes forth, not only on the person who releases him.
רֵיקָם
reqam
GROWS FROM
ריק
Empty; to be empty or emptied.
Reqam describes going empty-handed, pointing to what the departing person lacks in practical terms. Paired with shalach, it makes provision part of what this freedom looks like.
ALSO GROWS
req: Empty or vacant.
רֵיק
It names the emptiness that the verse refuses to make the departing person carry.
heriq: To empty out or pour out.
הֵרִיק
It shows the root as an action too: something can be emptied, which sharpens the contrast with sending a person away with something in hand.
חָפְשִׁי
ḥop̄šî
GROWS FROM
חפשׁ
Free, at liberty.
“send him out unbound” in this verse is ḥop̄šî. Freedom is already named before the verse adds its prohibition against an empty departure. Provision is not presented as the price of becoming free; it belongs to what accompanies freedom as the person leaves.
ALSO GROWS
chofesh: Freedom or liberty.
חֹפֶשׁ
It names the state given to the person in the verse.
chofshut: Liberty or freedom.
חָפְשׁוּת
It carries the same freedom-language beyond this verse’s specific departure.
THE PATTERN
When a person is sent into a new life, release is made concrete through provision for the way ahead.
And I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty.You shall lavish upon him from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the LORD your God has blessed you with, you shall give to him.And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.THE THREAD
And I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty.Both verses use רֵיקָם (reqam, empty-handed) for the departure. In Exodus, people leaving bondage do not go empty; here, the same pattern shapes one person’s release.
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