I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest ¹  that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”

Even I and my relatives ¹  and my associates ²  are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! ³ 

So do not be excessively righteous or excessively ¹  wise; ²  otherwise ³  you might ⁴  be disappointed. ⁵ 

you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words: ¹  “Look how the oppressor has met his end! Hostility ²  has ceased!

Your creditors will suddenly attack; ¹  those who terrify you will spring into action, ²  and they will rob you. ³ 

For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe ¹  man. You withdraw ²  what you did not deposit ³  and reap what you did not sow.’

The king ¹  said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, ²  you wicked slave! ³  So you knew, did you, that I was a severe ⁴  man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow?

This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; ¹  he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, ²  for it is to be recognized as “the Lord’s cancellation of debts.”

We will not buy ¹  on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan. ² 

“I am a Jew, ¹  born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up ²  in this city, educated with strictness ³  under ⁴  Gamaliel ⁵  according to the law of our ancestors, ⁶  and was ⁷  zealous ⁸  for God just as all of you are today.