Text: Nehemiah 10:31
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 15:1
Subject: debt release oath
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression
Significance: Deuteronomy 15:1 commands debt cancellation "at the end of every seven years" (מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים, miqqetz sheva' shanim), establishing the שְׁמִטָּה (shemittah, "release") as a pillar of Israelite economic justice. Nehemiah 10:31 records the post-exilic community pledging to "forgo the crops of the seventh year and the collection of every debt," binding themselves by oath to the very sabbatical-year legislation they had previously neglected. The community's formal re-commitment to the shemittah after the exile demonstrates that the Deuteronomic economic laws remained normative and that covenant renewal required explicit recommitment to social provisions that protected the poor.