Deuteronomy 15:13

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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רֵיקָֽם

rêyqâm

H7387

“in vain”

Adverb

Appears 16× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 31:42

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7386

TWOT: 2161c

vainly, emptily - in empty condition, empty, emptily - in vain, without effect, vainly

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
6: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is רֵיקָֽם in vain H7387 — appearing just 16 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

רֵיקָֽם in vain H7387 occurs in 16 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
1 adjective
1 preposition
1 conjunction
1 adverb
1 particle

Verb forms

תְשַׁלְּחֶ֥נּוּ Piel · Imperfect
תְשַׁלְּחֶ֖נּוּ Piel · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

תְשַׁלְּחֶ֥נּוּ to send H7971 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 15:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Proverbs 3:27–28 Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do it.
Jeremiah 22:13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and doesn't give him his hire;
Malachi 3:5 I 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 Hosts.
Genesis 31:42 Unless 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."
Exodus 3:21 I 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.
Leviticus 25:42–44 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
Colossians 4:1 Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 15:13 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְכִֽי תְשַׁלְּחֶ֥נּוּ חָפְשִׁ֖י מֵֽעִמָּ֑ךְ לֹ֥א תְשַׁלְּחֶ֖נּוּ רֵיקָֽם

When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 15:13 Septuagint · lemma form

ὅταν δέ ἐκ ἀποστέλλω αὐτός ἐλεύθερος ἀπό σύ οὐ ἐκ ἀποστέλλω αὐτός κενός

And when you shall send him out free from you, you shall not send him out empty.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲרֵי תִפְטְרִנֵה בַּר חוֹרִין מֵעִמָךְ לָא תִפְטְּרִנֵה רֵיקָן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲרוּם אִין תִּפְטְרוּנֵיהּ בַּר חוֹרֵי מִגַּבֵּיכוֹן לָא תִפְטְרוּנֵיהּ רֵיקָנָא

And when thou lettest him go away from thee at liberty, thou shalt not send him away empty.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 15:13 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

thou shalt not let him go away empty--A seasonable and wise provision for enabling a poor unfortunate to regain his original status in society, and the motive urged for his kindness and humanity to the Hebrew slave was the remembrance that the whole nation was once a degraded and persecuted band of helots in Egypt. Thus, kindness towards their slaves, unparalleled elsewhere in those days, was inculcated by the Mosaic law; and in all their conduct towards persons in that reduced condition, leniency and gentleness were enforced by an appeal which no Israelite could resist.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 13. Thou shalt not let him go away empty] Because during the time he served thee, he made no property for himself, having been always honest towards thee; and now when he leaves thee, he has nothing to begin the world with.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

13. empty] In Pent. only in E (Gen_31:42; Exo_3:21; Exo_23:15), J (Exo_34:20) and D (here, and Deu_16:16).

13, 14. Peculiar to D and characteristic of its philanthropy.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And when thou sendest him out free from thee,.... When he discharged him from his servitude, and made him a free man:

thou shall not let him go away empty; without anything to support himself, or to put himself in a way of business; he having in the time of his servitude worked entirely for his master, and so could not have got and saved anything for himself.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 7 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rêyqâm (“in vain”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word rêyqâm carries the sense “in vain.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Genesis 31:42, which shares the word «in vain», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “to send” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«תְשַׁלְּחֶ֥נּוּ» is a Piel Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Jamieson, Fausset & Brown and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
“to send” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.