The Seventh Year
(Exodus 23:10–13; Deuteronomy 15:1–6)

1And YHWH spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you⁺ come into the land that I am giving to you⁺, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to YHWH.

3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit. 4And in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath to YHWH.

Your field you shall not sow, and your vineyard you shall not prune. 5What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your untended vine you shall not gather. It is a year of complete rest for the land. 6And the Sabbath of the land to you⁺ shall be food for you, and for your manservant, and for your maidservant, and for your hireling, and for your sojourner sojourning with you, 7and for your livestock, and for the beast that is in your land. All its produce shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

8And you shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years—seven years seven times—and the days of seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you nine and forty years. 9And the shofar of the Jubilee you shall cause to sound in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, in the Day of the Atonements. You⁺ shall make the shofar to sound throughout all your⁺ land.

10And you⁺ shall consecrate the year, the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land to all its dwellers. It shall be a Jubilee for you⁺, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

11That fiftieth year shall be a year of Jubilee to you⁺. You⁺ shall not sow, nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather of your untended vine. 12For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you⁺. You⁺ shall eat its produce from the field.

Return of Property

13In the Year of this Jubilee each of you shall return to his possession.

14And if you⁺ sell anything to your neighbor or buy from the hand of your neighbor, you⁺ shall not oppress one another. 15According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you. 16According to the multitude of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for he is selling to you a number of crops.

17and you⁺ shall not oppress one another, and you shall fear your God. For I am YHWH your⁺ God.

The Blessing of Obedience
(Deuteronomy 28:1–14)

18And you⁺ shall observe My statutes, and keep My ordinances and perform them, and you⁺ will dwell in the land in safety. 19And the land will yield its fruit, and you⁺ will eat your fill and dwell in safety there.

20Now you⁺ may say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?’ 21And I will command My blessing on you⁺ in the sixth year, and it will bring forth enough produce for three years. 22And you⁺ shall sow in the eighth year, and eat of the old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you⁺ shall eat of the old harvest.

The Law of Redemption

23And the land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine, for you⁺ are strangers and sojourners with Me. 24And in all the land of your⁺ possession, you⁺ shall grant redemption of the land.

25If one of your brothers becomes poor and he has sold some of his possession, then the redeemer to him, if he comes to redeem it, he may redeem what his brother sold. 26And if the man, there is unto him no one to redeem it, and he has found his own hand has attained sufficiency for its redemption, 27then let him count the years of its sale and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. 28But if his hand has not found sufficiency to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of the Jubilee. And it shall be released in the Jubilee, and he shall return to his possession.

29And if a man sells a dwelling-house in a walled city, then it shall be that he may redeem it within the completion of a year from its selling; during that year it may be redeemed. 30But if it is not redeemed within the filling for it of a full year, the house that is within that walled city, then it shall belong forever to the buyer of it throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the Jubilee. 31And the houses of the villages that have no wall around them, as the fields of the country, shall be counted redeemed; and they may be unto it; they shall be released in the Jubilee.

32And as for the cities of the Levites, the houses the Levites shall be a redemption of perpetuity in the cities of their possession. 33And as to him who redeems from the Levites, then both the sale of a house and the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. 34And the field of the pastureland of their cities may not be sold, for it is an everlasting possession to them.

Redemption of the Poor

35And if one of your brothers among you becomes poor and his hand has failed, then you shall help him like a sojourner or a stranger, and he may live with you. 36and you shall not take usury from him or interest; you shall fear your God, that your brother may live with you. 37You shall lend your silver to him, not for usury at a profit, nor sell him your food. 38I am YHWH your⁺ God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give to you⁺ the land of Canaan and to be your⁺ God.

Redemption of Bondmen

39And if one of your brothers among you becomes poor, and he sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. 40He shall be as a hireling and a sojourner with you; he shall serve you until the Year of the Jubilee. 41And he shall depart from you, and his children with him, and he shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers he shall return.

42For they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43You shall not rule over him with rigor, and you shall fear your God.

44And your manservant and your maidservant whom you may have are from the nations that are around you⁺; from them you⁺ may buy a manservant and maidservant. 45Moreover, the sons of the sojourners who dwell among you⁺, these you⁺ may buy, and their clans who are with you⁺ that they beget in your⁺ land; and they shall be unto you⁺ for a possession. 46And you⁺ may take them as an inheritance for your⁺ children after you⁺ to inherit them as a possession forever; in them shall be your⁺ slaves, and regarding your⁺ brothers, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with rigor one over another.

Redemption of Servants

47And if a sojourner or stranger among you becomes rich, and one of your brothers by him becomes poor and sells himself to the sojourner or stranger among you, or to a member of the family of a sojourner, 48after he is sold, there is unto him the right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49or his uncle or a son of his uncle may redeem him, or any of the relations of his flesh in his family may redeem him, or if his own hand has attained, then he may redeem himself.

50And he shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he was sold to him, until the Year of the Jubilee. And the price of his release shall be according to the number of years; it is according to the time of a hireling for him. 51If yet there are many years according to them, he shall repay the price of his redemption from the silver with which he was bought. 52And if but a few years remain until the Year of the Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him according to his years; he shall repay him the price of his redemption. 53As a hireling year by year he shall be with him. He shall not rule over him with rigor in your eyes.

54And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of the Jubilee—he and his children with him. 55For the sons of Israel are servants to Me. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your⁺ God.