You asked

what forms of 'debt' in our world might need a principle of release or restructuring?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Deuteronomy 15:1-2

“At the end of every seven years you shall make a release. This is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed.”

This passage is part of Moses's address to the Israelites, given just before they enter the promised land. It lays out laws for how they are to live as a community, including instructions for economic practices like the 'year of release' (Shemitah), which happens every seven years.

What might it mean to apply a principle of 'release' to cycles of debt or obligation in our personal and collective lives today?

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

Leviticus 25:8-12
Describes the 'Year of Jubilee' every fifty years, which includes not just debt release but also land return and freedom for slaves.
Nehemiah 5:1-12
Shows a real-world example of debt relief enacted by Nehemiah in response to economic hardship among the returning exiles.
Matthew 6:12
In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches disciples to pray for forgiveness of 'debts,' often interpreted as both financial and spiritual/moral obligations.

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