What Does Deuteronomy 15:2 Mean?
And this is the word of the release. Every one whose hand has lent to his neighbor shall let it fall, and he shall not press it from his neighbor or from his brother, for it is called the LORD's release.
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 this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.THE KEY
The Hebrew names debt release as a letting-drop, and makes the creditor’s own hand the thing that releases it.
THE MEANING
When a neighbor’s debt falls under this release, the creditor relinquishes the claim instead of demanding repayment. The verse names that relinquishing as the LORD’s release, placing freedom from debt within God’s own order.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A rightful debt must always be pursued until it is paid.
THE ROOT
שְׁמִטָּה
shemittah
GROWS FROM
שׁמט
sh-m-ṭ
Let drop; release.
“let it fall” in this verse is shemittah. Here the noun is paired with the verb, and the phrase “his hand” makes the creditor’s hand the thing that drops its hold. The same root names a seventh-year release of the land, placing debt release within a wider letting-go.
ALSO GROWS
shamot: To let drop; release.
שָׁמֹט
This verb appears beside the noun in the Hebrew phrase for the release, making the creditor’s act of letting go part of the verse’s wording.
tishmetennah: You shall let it drop; release it.
תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה
Exodus 23:11 uses this form for releasing the land in the seventh year, when the poor and the animals eat what grows.
THE PATTERN
Release interrupts a claim so that debt, land, or a person held under pressure can have room again.
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.And you shall set apart the fiftieth year, and proclaim a free flowing through all the land to all who settle in it. It shall be a ram's horn year for you, and you shall turn back each to his holding, and each to his family you shall turn back.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
From the foreigner you may press it again, but whatever is yours with your brother, your hand shall let fall.The root שׁמט (shamat, let drop or release) appears again in the command that the creditor’s hand release the debt. The verse also marks a boundary: the brother’s debt is released, while a foreigner’s debt may still be exacted.
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