When I think of the Bronze Age of the Near East I am reminded of a walk through the British Museum several years ago. Who would guess the that the clay tablets from the Near East Bronze Age with the cuneiform writing were the accounting records of earlier dynasties, temples and powerful landowners locked in struggles over debt , power and land/crop acquisition. One of the key challenges was balancing credit and debt and mitigating usury so craftsmen and farmers and or their families would not be held in bondage by the ruler or a creditor class. Periodic “Forgiveness of debt” through a Jubilee year or a change of ruler would free the disenfranchised for corvee labor or warfare in behalf of the ruler. The cancellation of debt in later centuries became embedded in Mosaic Law and Jesus’ admonition “ Forgive us our debts”. Unfortunately this practice was not adhered to and is considered utopian by many economists who insist that debts must be paid. The author makes the case through the study of Near Eastern economic history that this concept and practice was successful and should be reconsidered. The practice is very pertinent to our own epoch in terms of social justice in order to avoid economic foreclosure and collapse and the creation of a huge dependent underclass.