V. 1-3. For seven years you shall keep a year of remission 2c.
Because in the previous chapter he had begun to deal with the tithes in every third year for the provision of the poor, on the occasion of the annual tithes due to the Levites for the service of God, he now remains with what he had begun, and now completely finishes this locum of the poor, digressing [from the main matter], to such an extent (adeo) that he also mixes this civil law of remission into the treatment of the first commandment. But the suinma of this chapter is that they should not be guilty of this, that the poor are abandoned in the land. But he says that there would always be poor, so that they would have people to give to, either from the tithes in the third year, or with borrowings, or in some other way. We have spoken of the tithes, now let us speak of the borrowings.
He says that what had been borrowed could be reclaimed before the seventh year, but in the seventh year itself everything that should then still be found as borrowed should be free and given to the brother, and that according to divine right. But that this seventh year was a fixed and certainly ordered one, like the jubilee year was, in which what had been bought was returned and set free, follows with necessity (necesse est) from the fact that it did not begin from the day on which the borrowing took place, but was a general one over the whole land and people, like the feasts, the Passover, the Pentecosts and others were. It is truly a very beautiful and very cheap law; after all, GOD wanted the rulers of the world to follow the
If the same were to follow today, they would have fewer questions and troubles, since they would know that the lawsuits, disputes, debts, acts, contracts, rights, seals, and letters would all have to be cancelled and extinguished at once in the seventh year, whether it is near or far away, and that they could not be postponed and maintained in eternal and endless investigations (quaestiones). At the same time, they would be forced to be careful not to have such a large sum outstanding that they could have no hope of having it restored before the seventh year, and so even spendthrifts and rogues (perditis) could not rely on foreign goods that they had accumulated through debts and contracts.
But what do you want to say to Christ, who forbids Matth. 5,1 ) 40. ff. and Luc. 6, 34. f. that one reclaims what he has borrowed, and commands that one lends without hoping to receive the same again? I answer: Christ is speaking to Christians, who are above all laws and do more than the laws prescribe. Moses, however, provided the people, who are subject to the authorities and the sword, as long as they are citizens (civilem populum), with laws, so that the wicked would be kept in check and public peace would exist. Here the law is to be administered in such a way that the one who has borrowed should give back, although a Christian, if such a law does not come to his aid, even if what he has borrowed is not given back to him, should bear this with equanimity. So also, although the law enjoins that one should not
1) In the editions: Matth. 6.
and takes revenge on those who are violent, a Christian bears it when he is wronged and does not take revenge, nor does he seek revenge, although he does not prevent the severity of the avenging sword, because he knows that the sword is used for vengeance against evildoers, as Peter 1 Petr. 2, 14. says.
Then, what is this, that he allows a stranger to reclaim what he has borrowed, even in the seventh year, that is, always, but not from a brother? Is not then justice and love to be observed against a stranger? To this it is to be answered that this also is done for a just cause of the world government (publicae politiae), that the citizens are honored before the foreigners and strangers with a privilege, so that everything is not through each other and equal; so it also happened with the Romans, when they gave some cities the right of a colony, others the right of a Roman city. For these differences (formas), though they seem to have an appearance of inequity, the world must necessarily have in its regime, as is the status of servants and maids, and likewise of artisans (operariorum) and laborers. For not all can be in the same way kings, princes, councilors, kingdoms, free people, since the world cannot exist without various and different persons. As much as before God there is no respect of persons, but all are equal, the respect of persons and inequality is necessary for the world, so that the wicked are kept in check and public peace exists, which cannot exist under the equality and indiscriminateness of persons.
But the people of the Jews had a further and higher right, not only to reclaim what they had borrowed, but, as he says here [v. 6.], also to usurp the Gentiles and to take interest from them, namely by divine power, which itself orders and permits this. For he is GOD and the LORD over all things, who not only takes away money and things, but also kingdoms and dominions (imperia, when he wills, in whatever way he wills, and gives to whom he wills. Therefore, if God, in order to take vengeance on the pagans, wants to punish them by means of interest and usury, and
If he commands the Jews to do this, the Jews will do well to obediently give themselves to God as instruments and execute his wrath on the Gentiles through usury and interest, just as he commanded them to drive out the Amorites and Cananites. Thus, if a husband should seem worthy to God to be deprived of his wife or children, and I am commanded to do so by his word, I would not be an adulterer or a robber of men if I deprived him of his wife and children, but an obedient rod of God over the ungodly man.
Here the question is solved, how it was allowed to the Jews to usury. The answer is that they were not free to do so because of their merits or according to common law, but because of God's wrath against the Gentiles, which He wants to execute through the Jews as the instruments of His wrath. Nevertheless, they would not have been allowed to make use of this freedom if they had not been commanded to do so by a certain and manifest word of God, and if they had not been chosen to be such instruments. For they were no better than any of the Gentiles, as I have said above, only that God chose and accepted them out of mercy alone, so that, if you look at the matter correctly, it is not the Jews themselves who are usurious, but it is God who persecutes the Gentiles through the usury of the Jews. This has been sufficiently proven, since he again handed over the Jews, who disobeyed him and sinned, to the Gentiles, not only that they should be burdened with usury, but that they should be plagued with all kinds of ignominy, even considerably more cruelly than he ever handed over the Gentiles to the Jews; as he also said in the 28th chapter. Chapter 12 of this book, and adds in this chapter, V. 6, that they will lend to many nations, but only if they obey the voice of the Lord, V. 5, as if to say that if they did not obey, they would not only not lend, but would be like the Gentiles, or even more miserable, which is what happened to them.
However, nowadays, since the Jews have ceased to be the people of God, the Law has been abolished, and they have become the people of God with their godlessness.
The words of the law are not words of the law, but rather words of promise, since it says: "If you obey the voice of the Lord, you will lend to many Gentiles" (foenerabis). But to fulfill the words of promise does not stand with men, as the words of the law, but with GOD alone, who promises this, so that this must be the meaning: If you obey the voice of the LORD, then by the action of GOD the Gentiles will fall into such misery that even if you do not remember it nor seek it, they will have to pay usury, and will be subject to you in all things, and you will rule over them with all their goods, so that you can take (rapias), claim (exigas), usury as you please. It is the Lord who will thus subdue the Gentiles to you and humble them through you.
V. 4. There shall be no beggar among you.
A very beautiful worldly order, which however was never kept, therefore also this law of Mosis, as far as it concerns the whole people, remains only in words. If begging is forbidden among this people, with what right is it established among the Christians, as if it were holy, also by laws? Poverty is praised, but in such a way that one should come to its aid. Then the poverty of the spirit is praised, but it is commanded that one should help the outward poverty, not differently than other repulsions of the neighbor. And it is to be wondered why these praisers of external poverty do not also take upon themselves wounds, diseases, prison, nakedness, banishment, hunger, thirst, sword, dangers, death, sins, the devil and all other evils and make themselves obligated to them (profiteantur), by instituting new vows for this purpose, as they did for poverty, so that one may suffer disease, another imprisonment, another hunger, another sins, or the devil, since Christ commands that for these things one should
He says [Matth. 25, 43]: "I have been sick, and you have not visited me" 2c.
But our praisers of poverty, instead of diseases and wounds, have a well-groomed (obesam) skin and fattened flesh, more than gluttons and harlots, instead of banishment they have houses more splendid than the palaces of kings, instead of hunger they devour the storehouses of all people, for thirst they have full cellars, instead of death they have a quite pleasant and safe life. Then they sing to us about the glory of poverty that must be borne. But God has commanded that they should be put away, so that we may be, as an example is written in the Acts of the Apostles also for the Christian people [Acts 4:34]: "Neither was there any among them that lacked."
Therefore, there should be no poverty and mendicancy among the people of God, but care and attention that there is no poverty and mendicancy, so that you may know that the mendicant orders and all those who profess to be poor and boast of it are disciples and servants of the devil, who rage against the Lord and his anointed (Christ), just as in the people of God there should not be sickness, hunger, thirst, exile, death, sin and the devil, but care and attention, if such a thing should occur among them, that it be removed as soon as possible, and care taken that it not be among them. I say that poverty is not to be advocated, not to be chosen, not to be taught, for it is everywhere enough by itself, as he says here [v. 11], "There shall always be poor among you," as well as all other evils. But for this one should constantly take care that one always confronts these things, 1) because they always occur. You see, then, what is involved in the institution of vowing poverty and in the whole realm of the pope.
V. 7-11. If any of your brothers is poor 2c.
That is the way of the world, that as soon as a law is given, it is also found out,
1) In the Erlanger: oacupatur instead of: occurratur.
how to circumvent the law. Therefore, Moses also anticipates here the treachery that would arise with the law of the seventh year of remission, in that avarice and human hard-heartedness think like this when the year of remission is near: What should I do? Should I borrow? But after a few months the year of remission will be here. Then I will have given it away in vain, because there is no hope of getting it back, nor the right to demand it again. Moses speaks against this [stinginess] with strange and sharp words, calling it a hard heart, a vile word, a shameful deed, an ungodly eye, and finally also a sin that cries out to God, so that you can see that Moses also agrees with Christ in the doctrine of lending, that even under the threat that one should be guilty of such great offenses, he commands that one should lend, even though there is no hope of getting it back, or right to demand it back, so that the epitome of this teaching is that one should work for the poor in love.
V. 12-14. If your brother, a Hebrew or Hebrew woman, sells himself to you, he shall serve you six years 2c.
He renews (rovocat) the law 2 Mos. 21,1 ) 2. f.. [and draws it] to this law of the release of the borrowed, because it also speaks of the poor, who, forced by poverty, have sold themselves and, as it were, have been lent something, by making themselves debtors with their own bodies. But he adds in this place that he should not let him go empty from him when he gives him free, and indicates two reasons for this, first, that they should remember that they also were servants in Egypt, secondly, that he [the servant] had been a two-fold day laborer with him. I believe this is said because he who sells himself to another does himself two harms: first, that he serves another and works out everything for his master; second, that in the meantime he misses his own, and what he gains for his master he could have gained for himself. Therefore, it would be quite unreasonable for him to be sent away completely empty. Therefore he says [v. 18:]
1) In the issues: Lx. 22.
"Don't let it seem hard that you let him go free."
Moses always adds glorious promises: that God has blessed, that He blesses, and that He will bless those who do this, so that they will not doubt that it will be amply repaid to them when they have either given or lent something away, as Christ also says [Luc. 6, 38.]: "Pray, and it will be given to you." Hence the saying of Solomon [Prov. 19:17], "He who has mercy on the poor lends to the Lord," and again [Prov. 14:31], "He who has mercy on the poor honors God," and many such sayings, as well as many threats in opposition to them, against those who do not have mercy, as the Scriptures are full of them. But this is not lost on the deaf godlessness and unbelief that thinks that God is either joking or lying with such words, and he is worthy to be deprived of the goods of this life and the life to come, just as [1 Sam. 25, 10. ff.] that fool Nabal in Carmel denied David [his help], but soon, deprived of life, kept nothing himself.
V. 16-18. But he will say: I will not depart from you 2c.
That the ear was pierced with an awl at the post in the door of the house was an outward sign of constant servitude, as one must have signs in human things to distinguish the persons. Thus the emperor uses the robe, the hatchet, the diadem; the woman the veil; the virgin the crown; the child a little button (bulla). But it was a suitable and fitting sign that the ear was pierced with the awl. The awl signifies that the commandment of his lord is sharp and iron, namely, that it penetrates, and the word of the lord is effective in the servant. The ear signifies obedience, which submits to the commandment. The fact that this is done in the door means that he is given the right and the power (usus) to go in and out and to do everything, and that he is taken in among the servants of the house. Furthermore, earrings made of gold, silver and precious stones
are made an ornament of the free. But the awl of the slaves is iron, because the obedience of the free is willing and free, all golden and delicious, but that of the servants forced, for wages, and iron and low.
V. 19. ff. All the firstborn that is born among your cattle and sheep 2c.
Now he catches up and comes again completely to the tax, which is to be given to the priests, after the digression about the supply of the poor is finished, in order to add what should have been added above, namely, that the firstborn, which would be offered to God, must be so constituted that it is absolutely without defect and infirmity. Therefore he says here that the firstling of the oxen should also not be plowed, and the firstlings of the sheep should not be shorn, so that the firstborn may be completely unharmed, and not be used for any use or benefit, but only be offered to GOtte, and eaten in the place chosen by GOtte, as one should also abstain from the holy and what is due to GOtte. "Thou shalt eat" [v. 20.] (saith he), that is, thou shalt offer it to be eaten, and shalt be gathered together among them that eat it, as I said above [Cap. 12]. Thus, if it should have any other defect, it was not to be sacrificed, but every man might eat it at home in his city.
Secret interpretation.
The year of remission of the debt is the whole time of grace, because the whole kingdom of Christ is nothing else than the remission of debts continuously, so that they are remitted. But that they are not forgiven to the stranger means that outside the church of Christ there is no forgiveness of sins. For neither can those be forgiven who do not wish to be forgiven, who justify themselves and despise the church. Therefore it must be demanded of them until they repent, that is, nothing must be remitted to them, but they must always be demanded so that they will be of a different mind and do differently until they repent; but to the brother who repents, everything must be remitted.
den. For where there is faith, there are no sins that cannot be forgiven and given; but where unbelief remains, there are no sins that do not have to be condemned and demanded. That one borrow from no one, and all borrow from him [v. 6.], that is, that one live so righteously as to be indebted to no one, but all are indebted to him, because he injures no one, but he is injured by all. That there should be no poor [v. 4.], and if there be, they should be helped; that is, that the weak in faith and life should be borne, taught, and admonished, and prayed for without falsehood in perfect singleness of heart; and such men shall always be among you [v. 11.]. But that the Hebrew servant, the brother, should not be left without a provision, that is, that he should not only be forgiven the debt, but also helped by adding a benefit of love. Although this servant, according to the actual spiritual interpretation, is the people of the law, who serve in a hard bondage, yet when the year of remission comes through the gospel, he is not only set free from the law, but also honored with the word of the gospel, by which he can live; for he has served in a twofold bondage, that he has done the works of the law, and yet has gained nothing, except that his master, the law, has increased; For the more we do works under the law, the more it demands, and the more powerful it becomes, and the less it is fulfilled, because namely the hatred against the law constantly increases; and in the meantime (tamen) he also neglects his own, that is, he does not gain a confidence of conscience, but loses it, whereas he could rather have gained it outside the law through the gospel. But that his ear is pierced with the awl, and he remains a servant forever, means that he, already free in spirit, nevertheless subjugates his flesh to the law all the stronger and forces it to obedience by the iron and hard law, as Paul says [1 Cor. 9, 27.]: "I stupefy my body and tame it" 2c. Thus he remains at the same time a servant and a freeman.
That the firstling from the ox is not for tillage
The righteousness of faith is not to be abused for our own benefit or glory, but to be offered up to God, that he may have the glory and honor. For it does not come from our works, nor is it under our power that we should rule over it, but it belongs to God alone, who creates and gives it. Thus Paul does not want to rule over the faith of the Corinthians [2 Cor. 1, 24]. This spiritual interpretation especially concerns the ministers of the Word, that they do not subject the people of faith to their laws and their works, but offer them to God alone, that they may be subject to him and be governed by faith, as Paul boasts in Rom. 15, 16, that he has given the gospel to the people of God.
fo sacrificare (sanctificare) that the Gentiles may become a sacrifice pleasing to God, that is, through the gospel he sacrifices the Gentiles to God, so that they may not be subject to him, Paul, but to God. And what do the ministers of the word do, when they subject us to their works, but shear us and seek their advantage and honor, namely the wool and the fruit of our labor?
That there should be no fault in it is that the conscience should be healthy in faith, so that it does not want to be justified by works and by faith at the same time and please God. For this reason the Lord also severely reproaches this vice in the prophet Malachi [Cap. 1, 7. ff.], because it is not a joke with faith and its doctrine. Tit. 2, 8. [Vulg.]: "His word is wholesome and blameless."