---
title: "Deuteronomy 15 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/deuteronomy/15/
description: "The law of the seventh year of remission. The firstlings of cattle are to… Deuteronomy 15 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Deuteronomy 15

Deuteronomy 15 is chapter 15 of 34 in the Book of Deuteronomy. Here are all 23 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The law of the seventh year of remission. The firstlings of cattle are to be sanctified to the Lord.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Deuteronomy 15 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. “In the seventh year, you shall perform a remission,
2. which shall be celebrated according to this order. Anyone to whom anything is owed, by his friend or neighbor or brother, will not be able to request its return, because it is the year of remission of the Lord.
3. From the sojourner and the new arrival, you may require its return. From your fellow countryman and neighbor, you will not have the power to request its return.
4. And there shall not be anyone indigent or begging among you, so that the Lord your God may bless you in the land which he will deliver to you as a possession.
5. But only if you heed the voice of the Lord your God, and keep to all that he has ordered, that which I am entrusting to you this day, will he bless you, just as he has promised.
6. You shall lend money to many nations, and you yourselves shall borrow in return from no one. You shall rule over very many nations, and no one shall rule over you.
7. If one of your brothers, who dwells within the gates of your city, in the land which the Lord your God will give to you, falls into poverty, you shall not harden your heart, nor tighten your hand.
8. Instead, you shall open your hand to the poor, and you shall lend to him whatever you perceive him to need.
9. Take care, lest perhaps an impious thought might creep within you, and you might say in your heart: ‘The seventh year of remission approaches.’ And so you might turn your eyes away from your poor brother, unwilling to lend to him what he has asked. If so, then he may cry out against you to the Lord, and it will be a sin for you.
10. Instead, you shall give to him. Neither shall you do anything craftily while assisting him in his needs, so that the Lord your God may bless you, at all times and in all things to which you will put your hand.
11. The poor will not be absent from the land of your habitation. For this reason, I instruct you to open your hand to your indigent and poor brother, who lives among you in the land.
12. When your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, has been sold to you, and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you shall set him free.
13. And when you grant his freedom, you shall by no means permit him to go away empty.
14. Instead, you shall give to him, for his journey, from your flocks and threshing floor and winepress, with which the Lord your God has blessed you.
15. Remember that you yourself also served in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God set you free. And therefore, I now command this of you.
16. But if he will say, ‘I am not willing to depart,’ because he loves you and your household, and because he feels that it would be good for him to stay with you,
17. then you shall take an awl and pierce his ear, at the door of your house. And he shall serve you even forever. You shall also act similarly toward your woman servant.
18. You should not avert your eyes from them when you set them free, because he has served you for six years, in a manner deserving of the pay of a hired hand. So may the Lord your God bless you in all the works that you do.
19. Of the firstborn, those born from your herds and sheep, you shall sanctify to the Lord your God whatever is of the male sex. You shall not put the firstborn of the oxen to work, nor shall you shear the firstborn of the sheep.
20. In the sight of the Lord your God, you shall eat these, each year, in the place which the Lord will choose, you and your household.
21. But if it has a blemish, or is lame, or is blind, or if it is in any part deformed or debilitated, it shall not be immolated to the Lord your God.
22. Instead, you shall eat it within the gates of your city. The clean as well as the unclean alike shall feed on these, such as the roe deer and the stag.
23. This alone shall you observe: that you do not eat their blood, but pour it upon the ground like water.”

## Deuteronomy 15 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Septimo anno facies remissionem,
2. quæ hoc ordine celebrabitur. Cui debetur aliquid ab amico vel proximo ac fratre suo, repetere non poterit, quia annus remissionis est Domini.
3. A peregrino et advena exiges: civem et propinquum repetendi non habebis potestatem.
4. Et omnino indigens et mendicus non erit inter vos: ut benedicat tibi Dominus Deus tuus in terra, quam traditurus est tibi in possessionem.
5. Si tamen audieris vocem Domini Dei tui, et custodieris universa quæ jussit, et quæ ego hodie præcipio tibi, benedicet tibi, ut pollicitus est.
6. Fœnerabis gentibus multis, et ipse a nullo accipies mutuum. Dominaberis nationibus plurimis, et tui nemo dominabitur.
7. 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,
8. sed aperies eam pauperi, et dabis mutuum, quo eum indigere perspexeris.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Non deerunt pauperes in terra habitationis tuæ: idcirco ego præcipio tibi, ut aperias manum fratri tuo egeno et pauperi, qui tecum versatur in terra.
12. Cum tibi venditus fuerit frater tuus Hebræus aut Hebræa, et sex annis servierit tibi, in septimo anno dimittes eum liberum:
13. et quem libertate donaveris, nequaquam vacuum abire patieris:
14. sed dabis viaticum de gregibus, et de area, et torculari tuo, quibus Dominus Deus tuus benedixerit tibi.
15. Memento quod et ipse servieris in terra Ægypti, et liberaverit te Dominus Deus tuus, et idcirco ego nunc præcipio tibi.
16. Sin autem dixerit: Nolo egredi: eo quod diligat te, et domum tuam, et bene sibi apud te esse sentiat:
17. assumes subulam, et perforabis aurem ejus in janua domus tuæ, et serviet tibi usque in æternum. Ancillæ quoque similiter facies.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. In conspectu Domini Dei tui comedes ea per annos singulos in loco quem elegerit Dominus, tu et domus tua.
21. Sin autem habuerit maculam, vel claudum fuerit, vel cæcum, aut in aliqua parte deforme vel debile, non immolabitur Domino Deo tuo:
22. sed intra portas urbis tuæ comedes illud: tam mundus quam immundus similiter vescentur eis, quasi caprea et cervo.
23. Hoc solum observabis, ut sanguinem eorum non comedas, sed effundes in terram quasi aquam.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2449: Love For the Poor ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: It is not to be understood as a promise, that there should be no poor in Israel, as appears from ver. 11, where we learn that God's people would never be at a loss to find objects for their charity: but it is an ordinance that all should do their best endeavours to prevent any of their brethren from suffering the hardships of poverty and want.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).