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.

Blessings for Obedience

1 “You shall not make ^sidols for yourselves or erect an ^timage or ^upillar, and you shall not set up a ^vfigured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 ^wYou shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ^v‘Buy my field that is at ^wAnathoth, ^xfor the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ 8 Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in ^qthe court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at ^wAnathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

9 “And I bought the field at ^wAnathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and ^yweighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 ^zI signed the deed, ^asealed it, ^bgot witnesses, and ^yweighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. 12 And I gave the deed of purchase to ^cBaruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of ^dthe witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in ^qthe court of the guard. 13 I charged ^cBaruch in their presence, saying, 14 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and ^efields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

16 “After I had given the deed of purchase to ^fBaruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is ^gyou who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by ^hyour outstretched arm! ⁱNothing is too hard for you. 18 ^jYou show steadfast love to thousands, ^jbut you repay the guilt of fathers ^kto their children after them, O great and ^lmighty God, whose name is the ^mLord of hosts, 19 ⁿgreat in counsel and ^omighty in deed, ^pwhose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, ^qrewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. 20 You have shown ^rsigns and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, ^sand have made a name for yourself, as at this day. 21 ^tYou brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and ^uoutstretched arm, ^tand with great terror. 22 And you gave them this land, ^vwhich you swore to their fathers to give them, ^va land flowing with milk and honey. 23 And they entered and took possession of it. ^wBut they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. 24 Behold, ^xthe siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and ^ybecause of sword and famine and pestilence ^zthe city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. 25 Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, ^a“Buy the field for money ^band get witnesses”—though ^zthe city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’”

26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, ^cthe God of all flesh. ^dIs anything too hard for me?

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

16 ^sAnd he came to ^tNazareth, where he had been brought up. And ^uas was his custom, ^vhe went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up ^wto read. 17 And ^xthe scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and ^fsat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were ^gfixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today ^hthis Scripture ⁱhas been fulfilled in your hearing.”

21 Were you a bondservant¹ when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is ^sa freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is ^ta bondservant of Christ. 23 ^uYou were bought with a price; ^vdo not become bondservants of men. 24 So, brothers,^{2 w}in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

7 ^zDo not be deceived: God is not mocked, for ^awhatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For ^bthe one who sows to his own flesh ^cwill from the flesh reap corruption, but ^dthe one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And ^elet us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, ^fif we do not give up. 10 So then, ^gas we have opportunity, let us ^hdo good to everyone, and especially to those who are ⁱof the household of faith.