(Exodus 23:10–13; Deuteronomy 15:1–6)
1
And YHWH speaks to Moses, in Mount Sinai, saying,
2
“Speak to the sons of Israel, and you have said to them: When you come into the land which I am giving to you, then the land has kept a Sabbath to YHWH.
3
[For] six years you sow your field, and [for] six years you prune your vineyard, and have gathered its increase,
4
and in the seventh year is a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to YHWH; you do not sow your field, and you do not prune your vineyard;
5
you do not reap the spontaneous growth of your harvest, and you do not gather the grapes of your separated thing; it is a year of rest for the land.
6
And the Sabbath [increase] of the land has been for you for food, to you, and to your manservant, and to your handmaid, and to your hired worker, and to your settler, who are sojourning with you;
7
and for your livestock, and for the beast which [is] in your land, is all its increase for [them] to eat.
The Year of Jubilee
8
And you have numbered seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven Sabbaths of years have been forty-nine years for you,
9
and you have caused a horn of shouting to pass over in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; in the Day of Atonements you cause a horn to pass over through all your land;
10
and you have hallowed the year, the fiftieth year; and you have proclaimed liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; it is a Jubilee for you; and you have turned back each to his possession; indeed, you return each to his family.
11
It [is] a Jubilee, the fiftieth year, it is a year for you; you do not sow, nor reap its spontaneous growth, nor gather its separated things;
12
for it [is] a Jubilee—it is holy to you; you eat its increase from the field;
Return of Property
13
you return each to his possession in this Year of the Jubilee.
14
And when you sell anything to your fellow, or buy from the hand of your fellow, you do not oppress one another;
15
you buy from your fellow by the number of years after the Jubilee; he sells to you by the number of the years of increase;
16
you multiply its price according to the multitude of the years, and you diminish its price according to the fewness of the years; for [it is] a number of increases [that] he is selling to you;
17
and you do not oppress one another, and you have been afraid of your God; for I [am] your God YHWH.
The Blessing of Obedience
(Deuteronomy 28:1–14)
18
And you have done My statutes, and you keep My judgments, and have done them, and you have dwelt on the land confidently,
19
and the land has given its fruit, and you have eaten to satiety, and have dwelt confidently on it.
20
And when you say, What do we eat in the seventh year, behold, do we not sow, nor gather our increase?
21
Then I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it has made the increase for three years;
22
and you have sown [in] the eighth year, and have eaten of the old increase; you eat the old until the ninth year, until the coming in of its increase.
The Law of Redemption
23
And the land is not sold—to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for you [are] sojourners and settlers with Me;
24
and in all the land of your possession you give a redemption for the land.
25
When your brother becomes poor, and has sold his possession, then his redeemer who is near to him has come, and he has redeemed the sold thing of his brother;
26
and when a man has no redeemer, and his own hand has attained [means], and he has found [it] as sufficient [for] its redemption,
27
then he has reckoned the years of its sale, and has given back that which is over to the man to whom he sold [it], and he has returned to his possession.
28
And if his hand has not found sufficiency to give back to him, then his sold thing has been in the hand of him who buys it until the Year of Jubilee; and it has gone out in the Jubilee, and he has returned to his possession.
29
And when a man sells a dwelling-house [in] a walled city, then his right of redemption has been until the completion of a year from its selling; his right of redemption is [during these] days;
30
and if it is not redeemed to him until the fullness of a perfect year, then the house which [is] in a walled city has been established to extinction to him buying it, throughout his generations; it does not go out in the Jubilee.
31
And a house of the villages which have no surrounding wall is reckoned on the field of the country; there is redemption for it, and it goes out in the Jubilee.
32
As for cities of the Levites—houses of the cities of their possession—continuous redemption is for the Levites;
33
as for him who redeems from the Levites, then the sale of a house (and [in] the city of his possession) has gone out in the Jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel.
34
And a field, a outskirt of their cities, is not sold; for it [is] a continuous possession for them.
Redemption of the Poor
35
And when your brother has become poor, and his hand has failed with you, then you have kept hold on him, sojourner and settler, and he has lived with you;
36
you take no usury or increase from him; and you have been afraid of your God; and your brother has lived with you;
37
you do not give your money to him in usury, and you do not give your food for increase.
38
I [am] your God YHWH, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt to give the land of Canaan to you, to become your God.
Redemption of Bondmen
39
And when your brother becomes poor with you, and he has been sold to you, you do not lay servile service on him;
40
he is as a hired worker [and] as a settler with you; he serves with you until the Year of the Jubilee—
41
then he has gone out from you, he and his sons with him, and has turned back to his family; and he turns back to the possession of his fathers.
42
For they [are] My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold [with] the sale of a servant;
43
you do not rule over him with rigor, and you have been afraid of your God.
44
And your manservant and your handmaid whom you have [are] from the nations who [are] around you; you buy manservant and handmaid from them,
45
and also from the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, you buy from them, and from their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession;
46
and you have taken them for an inheritance for your sons after you, to inherit [for] a possession; you lay service on them for all time, but on your brothers, the sons of Israel, each with his brother—you do not rule over him with rigor.
Redemption of Servants
47
And when the hand of a sojourner or settler with you attains [riches], and your brother with him has become poor, and he has been sold to a sojourner, a settler with you, or to the root of the family of a sojourner,
48
after he has been sold, there is a right of redemption for him; one of his brothers redeems him,
49
or his uncle or a son of his uncle redeems him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, redeems him, or [if] his own hand has attained [means] then he has been redeemed.
50
And he has reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him until the Year of Jubilee, and the money of his sale has been by the number of years; it is with him as the days of a hired worker.
51
If many years still [remain], he gives back his redemption [money] according to them, from the money of his purchase.
52
And if few are left of the years until the Year of Jubilee, then he has reckoned with him [and] he gives back his redemption [money] according to his years;
53
as a hired worker, year by year, he is with him, and he does not rule him with rigor before your eyes.
54
And if he is not redeemed in these [years], then he has gone out in the Year of Jubilee, he and his sons with him.
55
For the sons of Israel [are] servants to Me; they [are] My servants whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I [am] your God YHWH.”
Copyright © 2020 Covenant Press and the CCC - licensed under CC BY-SA