The Sabbath Year
1 wThe Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into xthe land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 yYou shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land1 shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves2 and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, 7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: zall its yield shall be for food.
The Year of Jubilee
8 “You shall count seven weeks3 of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound athe loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. bOn the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and cproclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of dyou shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it eyou shall neither sow nor reap ywhat grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. fYou may eat the produce of the field.4
13 d“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, gyou shall not wrong one another. 15 hYou shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16 If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17 iYou shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
18 j“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then kyou will dwell in the land securely. 19 lThe land will yield its fruit, and myou will eat your fill kand dwell in it securely. 20 And if you say, n‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if owe may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21 I will pcommand my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 qWhen you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of rthe old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
Redemption of Property
23 “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for sthe land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
25 “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, tthen his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 let uhim calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. 28 But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall vbe released, and whe shall return to his property.
29 “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30 If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; vit shall not be released in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and vthey shall be released in the jubilee. 32 As for xthe cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. 33 And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34 But the fields yof pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.
Kindness for Poor Brothers
35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, zyou shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 aTake no interest from him or profit, but bfear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 aYou shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 cI 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.
39 d“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 vThen he shall go out from you, ehe and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return fto the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are gmy servants,5 whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 hYou shall not rule over him iruthlessly but jshall fear your God. 44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. 45 kYou may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. 46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel lyou shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
Redeeming a Poor Man
47 “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and myour brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, 48 then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin may nredeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ogrows rich he may redeem himself. 50 He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be prated as the time of a hired worker. 51 If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. 52 If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. 53 He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. lHe shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed by these means, then qhe and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. 55 For it is rto me that the people of Israel are servants.6 They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
To the Church in Sardis
1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him iwho has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation jof being alive, kbut you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works lcomplete in the sight of my God. 3 mRemember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, nI will come olike a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not psoiled their garments, and they will walk with me qin white, for they are rworthy. 5 sThe one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never tblot his name out of uthe book of life. vI will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
To the Church in Philadelphia
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of wthe holy one, xthe true one, ywho has the key of David, zwho opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you aan open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of bthe synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, cI will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that dI have loved you. 10 eBecause you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try fthose who dwell on the earth. 11 gI am coming soon. hHold fast what you have, so that no one may seize iyour crown. 12 jThe one who conquers, I will make him ka pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him lthe name of my God, and mthe name of the city of my God, mthe new Jerusalem, nwhich comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own onew name. 13 pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
To the Church in Laodicea
14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the pAmen, qthe faithful and true witness, rthe beginning of God’s creation.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. sWould that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 tFor you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, ublind, and naked. 18 I counsel you vto buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and wwhite garments so that you may clothe yourself and xthe shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, uso that you may see. 19 yThose whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and zknock. aIf anyone hears my voice and opens the door, bI will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 cThe one who conquers, dI will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as eI also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
