The Sabbatic Year

(Exodus 23:10-13; Deuteronomy 15:1-6)

1And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in mount Sinai, saying, 2‘Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye come in unto the land which I am giving to you, then hath the land kept a sabbath to Jehovah. 3‘Six years thou dost sow thy field, and six years thou dost prune thy vineyard, and hast gathered its increase, 4and in the seventh year a sabbath of rest is to the land, a sabbath to Jehovah; thy field thou dost not sow, and thy vineyard thou dost not prune; 5the spontaneous growth of thy harvest thou dost not reap, and the grapes of thy separated thing thou dost not gather, a year of rest it is to the land. 6‘And the sabbath of the land hath been to you for food, to thee, and to thy man-servant, and to thy handmaid, and to thy hireling, and to thy settler, who are sojourning with thee; 7and to thy cattle, and to the beast which [is] in thy land, is all thine increase for food.

The Year of Jubilee

8‘And thou hast numbered to thee seven sabbaths of years, seven years seven times, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years have been to thee nine and forty years, 9and thou hast caused a trumpet of shouting to pass over in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month; in the day of the atonements ye do cause a trumpet to pass over through all your land; 10and ye have hallowed the year, the fiftieth year; and ye have proclaimed liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; a jubilee it is to you; and ye have turned back each unto his possession; yea, each unto his family ye do turn back. 11‘A jubilee it [is], the fiftieth year, a year it is to you; ye sow not, nor reap its spontaneous growth, nor gather its separated things; 12for a jubilee it [is], holy it is to you; out of the field ye eat its increase;

Return of Property

13in the year of this jubilee ye turn back each unto his possession. 14‘And when thou sellest anything to thy fellow, or buyest from the hand of thy fellow, ye do not oppress one another; 15by the number of years after the jubilee thou dost buy from thy fellow; by the number of the years of increase he doth sell to thee; 16according to the multitude of the years thou dost multiply its price, and according to the fewness of the years thou dost diminish its price; for a number of increases he is selling to thee; 17and ye do not oppress one another, and thou hast been afraid of thy God; for I [am] Jehovah your God.

The Blessing of Obedience

(Deuteronomy 4:1-14; Deuteronomy 11:1-7; Deuteronomy 28:1-14)

18‘And ye have done My statutes, and My judgments ye keep, and have done them, and ye have dwelt on the land confidently, 19and the land hath given its fruit, and ye have eaten to satiety, and have dwelt confidently on it. 20‘And when ye say, What do we eat in the seventh year, lo, we do not sow, nor gather our increase? 21then I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it hath made the increase for three years; 22and ye have sown the eighth year, and have eaten of the old increase; until the ninth year, until the coming in of its increase, ye do eat the old.

The Law of Redemption

23‘And the land is not sold — to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for sojourners and settlers [are] ye with Me; 24and in all the land of your possession a redemption ye do give to the land.

25‘When thy brother becometh poor, and hath sold his possession, then hath his redeemer who is near unto him come, and he hath redeemed the sold thing of his brother; 26and when a man hath no redeemer, and his own hand hath attained, and he hath found as sufficient [for] its redemption, 27then he hath reckoned the years of its sale, and hath given back that which is over to the man to whom he sold [it], and he hath returned to his possession. 28‘And if his hand hath not found sufficiency to give back to him, then hath his sold thing been in the hand of him who buyeth it till the year of jubilee; and it hath gone out in the jubilee, and he hath returned to his possession.

29‘And when a man selleth a dwelling-house [in] a walled city, then hath his right of redemption been until the completion of a year from its selling; days — is his right of redemption; 30and if it is not redeemed until the fulness to him of a perfect year, then hath the house which [is] in a walled city been established to extinction to the buyer of it, to his generations; it goeth not out in the jubilee; 31and a house of the villages which have no wall round about, on the field of the country is reckoned; redemption is to it, and in the jubilee it goeth out. 32‘As to cities of the Levites — houses of the cities of their possession — redemption age-during is to the Levites; 33as to him who redeemeth from the Levites, both the sale of a house and the city of his possession have 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. 34And a field, a suburb of their cities, is not sold; for a possession age-during it [is] to them.

Redemption of the Poor

35‘And when thy brother is become poor, and his hand hath failed with thee, then thou hast kept hold on him, sojourner and settler, and he hath lived with thee; 36thou takest no usury from him, or increase; and thou hast been afraid of thy God; and thy brother hath lived with thee; 37thy money thou givest not to him in usury, and for increase thou givest not thy food; 38I [am] Jehovah your God, who hath brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give to you the land of Canaan, to become your God.

Redemption of Bondmen

39‘And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service; 40as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, — 41then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back. 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; 43thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God. 44‘And thy man-servant and thy handmaid whom thou hast [are] of the nations who [are] round about you; of them ye buy man-servant and handmaid, 45and also of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, of them ye buy, and of their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession; 46and ye have taken them for inheritance to your sons after you, to occupy [for] a possession; to the age ye lay service upon them, but upon your brethren, the sons of Israel, one with another, thou dost not rule over him with rigour.

Redemption of Servants

47‘And when the hand of a sojourner or settler with thee attaineth [riches], and thy brother with him hath become poor, and he hath been sold to a sojourner, a settler with thee, or to the root of the family of a sojourner, 48after he hath been sold, there is a right of redemption to him; one of his brethren doth redeem him, 49or his uncle, or a son of his uncle, doth redeem him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, doth redeem him, or — his own hand hath attained — then he hath been redeemed. 50‘And he hath reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him till the year of jubilee, and the money of his sale hath been by the number of years; as the days of an hireling it is with him. 51‘If yet many years, according to them he giveth back his redemption [money], from the money of his purchase. 52‘And if few are left of the years till the year of jubilee, then he hath reckoned with him, according to his years he doth give back his redemption [money]; 53as an hireling, year by year, he is with him, and he doth not rule him with rigour before thine eyes. 54‘And if he is not redeemed in these [years], then he hath gone out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. 55For to Me [are] the sons of Israel servants; My servants they [are], whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I, Jehovah, [am] your God.