Chapter 10 of Tractate Sheviit in the Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud and Tosefta Sheviit 8:3–11 interpreted to address debts and the Sabbatical year. The Mishnah held that the Sabbatical year cancelled loans, whether they were secured by a bond or not, but did not cancel debts to a shopkeeper or unpaid wages of a laborer, unless these debts were made into loans. When Hillel saw people refraining from lending, in transgression of , he ordained the "prosbul" (), which ensured the repayment of loans notwithstanding the Sabbatical year. Citing the literal meaning of — "this is the "word" of the release" — the Mishnah held that a creditor could accept payment of a debt notwithstanding an intervening Sabbatical year, if the creditor had first by word told the debtor that the creditor relinquished the debt. A "prosbul" prevents the remission of debts in the Sabbatical year. Hillel saw that people were unwilling to lend money to one another and disregarded the precept laid down in , "Beware that there be not a base thought in your heart saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand'; and your eye be evil against your needy brother, and you give him nothing," and Hillel therefore decided to institute the "prosbul". The text of the "prosbul" says: "I hand over to you, So-and-so, the judges in such-and-such a place, my bonds, so that I may be able to recover any money owing to me from So-and-so at any time I shall desire." And the judges or witnesses signed.