And when you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.
Parallel translations
- WEB When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty.
- KJV And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
- BSB And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.
- NKJV And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed;
- NLT “When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When freeing a servant, the master was not to send him away empty-handed. Release was to be generous, not grudging.
Overview
Freedom alone was not enough; the freed servant was to leave with resources to begin again. This prevented a cycle in which poverty forced immediate re-enslavement. The principle of sending the freed away well-supplied mirrors God's own grace and points toward the abundant provision believers receive when set free in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 3:27–28Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.
- Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Jer 22:13“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t give him his hire;
- Gen 31:42Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
- Lev 25:42–44For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
- Exod 3:21I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it will happen that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed.
- Col 4:1Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 15:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.