The Sabbatic Year

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

1And the LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the LORD. 3Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 4But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest, thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest to the land. 6And the sabbath of the land shall be food for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase of it be food.

The Year of Jubilee

8And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years to thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to thee forty and nine years. 9Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants: it shall be a jubilee to you; and ye shall return every man to his possession, and ye shall return every man to his family. 11A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. 12For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy to you: ye shall eat the increase of it out of the field.

Return of Property

13In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man to his possession. 14And if thou shalt sell aught to thy neighbor, or buy aught of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: 15According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to thee: 16According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price of it, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell to thee. 17Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.

The Blessing of Obedience

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

18Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 19And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell in it in safety. 20And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase: 21Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. 22And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of old fruit until the ninth year; until its fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

The Law of Redemption

23The land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

25If thy brother shall have become poor, and have sold some of his possession, and if any of his kin shall come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26And if the man shall have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; 27Then let him count the years of the sale of it, and restore the overplus to the man to whom he sold it; that he may return to his possession. 28But if he shall not be able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.

29And if a man shall sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold: within a full year may he redeem it. 30And if it shall not be redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee, 31But the houses of the villages which have no walls around them, shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. 32Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33And if a man shall purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession shall go out in the year of jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

Redemption of the Poor

35And if thy brother shall have become poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he may be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36Take thou no interest of him, or increase; but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 38I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

Redemption of Bondmen

39And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee shall have become poor, and be sold to thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant: 40But as a hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee to the year of jubilee. 41And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return. 42For they are my servants, which I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bond-men. 43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. 44Both thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are around you; of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. 45Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. 46And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-men for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor.

Redemption of Servants

47And if a sojourner or a stranger shall become rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him shall become poor, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: 48After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: 49Either his uncle, or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin to him of his family, may redeem him; or if he is able, he may redeem himself. 50And he shall reckon with him that bought him, from the year that he was sold to him, to the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant shall it be with him. 51If there shall be yet many years behind, according to them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52And if there shall remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according to his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. 53And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. 54And if he shall not be redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he, and his children with him. 55For to me the children of Israel are servants, they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.