The Seventh Year
(Deuteronomy 15.1-11)1 When Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord told him 2 to say to the community of Israel:
After you enter the land that I am giving you, it must be allowed to rest one year out of every seven. 3 You may raise grain and grapes for six years, 4 but the seventh year you must let your fields and vineyards rest in honor of me, your Lord. 5 This is to be a time of complete rest for your fields and vineyards, so don't harvest anything they produce. 6-7 However, you and your slaves and your hired workers, as well as any domestic or wild animals, may eat whatever grows on its own.
The Year of Celebration
The Lord said to his people:
8 Once every 49 years 9 on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is also the Great Day of Forgiveness, trumpets are to be blown everywhere in the land. 10 This fiftieth year is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return home to their families. 11 This is a year of complete celebration, so don't plant any seed or harvest what your fields or vineyards produce. 12 In this time of sacred celebration you may eat only what grows on its own.
13 During this year, all property must go back to its original owner. 14-15 So when you buy or sell farmland, the price is to be determined by the number of crops it can produce before the next Year of Celebration. Don't try to cheat. 16 If it is a long time before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher, because what is really being sold are the crops that the land can produce. 17 I am the Lord your God, so obey me and don't cheat anyone.
18-19 If you obey my laws and teachings, you will live safely in the land and enjoy its abundant crops. 20 Don't ever worry about what you will eat during the seventh year when you are forbidden to plant or harvest. 21 I will see to it that you harvest enough in the sixth year to last for three years. 22 In the eighth year you will live on what you harvested in the sixth year, but in the ninth year you will eat what you plant and harvest in the eighth year.
23 No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me—it isn't your land, and you only live there for a little while.
24 When property is being sold, the original owner must be given the first chance to buy it.
25 If any of you Israelites become so poor that you are forced to sell your property, your closest relative must buy it back, 26 if that relative has the money. Later, if you can afford to buy it, 27 you must pay enough to make up for what the present owner will lose on it before the next Year of Celebration, when the property would become yours again. 28 But if you don't have the money to pay the present owner a fair price, you will have to wait until the Year of Celebration, when the property will once again become yours.
29 If you sell a house in a walled city, you have only one year in which to buy it back. 30 If you don't buy it back before that year is up, it becomes the permanent property of the one who bought it, and it will not be returned to you in the Year of Celebration. 31 But a house out in a village may be bought back at any time just like a field. And it must be returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration. 32 If any Levites own houses inside a walled city, they will always have the right to buy them back. 33 And any houses that they do not buy back will be returned to them in the Year of Celebration, because these homes are their permanent property among the people of Israel. 34 No pastureland owned by the Levi tribe can ever be sold; it is their permanent possession.
Help for the Poor
The Lord said:
35 If any of your people become poor and unable to support themselves, you must help them, just as you are supposed to help foreigners who live among you. 36-37 Don't take advantage of them by charging any kind of interest or selling them food for profit. Instead, honor me by letting them stay where they now live. 38 Remember—I am the Lord your God! I rescued you from Egypt and gave you the land of Canaan, so that I would be your God.
39 Suppose some of your people become so poor that they have to sell themselves and become your slaves. 40 Then you must treat them as servants, rather than as slaves. And in the Year of Celebration they are to be set free, 41 so they and their children may return home to their families and property. 42 I brought them out of Egypt to be my servants, not to be sold as slaves. 43 So obey me, and don't be cruel to the poor.
44 If you want slaves, buy them from other nations 45 or from the foreigners who live in your own country, and make them your property. 46 You can own them, and even leave them to your children when you die, but do not make slaves of your own people or be cruel to them.
47 Even if some of you Israelites become so much in debt that you must sell yourselves to foreigners in your country, 48 you still have the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother 49 or uncle or cousin, or some other family member. In fact, if you ever get enough money, you may buy your own freedom 50 by paying your owner for the number of years you would still be a slave before the next Year of Celebration. 51-52 The longer the time until then, the more you will have to pay. 53 And even while you are the slaves of foreigners in your own country, your people must make sure that you are not mistreated. 54 If you cannot gain your freedom in any of these ways, both you and your children will still be set free in the Year of Celebration. 55 People of Israel, I am the Lord your God, and I brought you out of Egypt to be my own servants.
1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, When ye shall come into the lande which I giue you, the lande shall keepe Sabbath vnto the Lord. 3 Sixe yeeres thou shalt sowe thy field, and sixe yeeres thou shalt cut thy vineyarde, and gather the fruite thereof. 4 But the seuenth yeere shalbe a Sabbath of rest vnto the lande: it shall be the Lordes Sabbath: thou shalt neither sowe thy fielde, nor cut thy vineyarde. 5 That which groweth of it owne accorde of thy haruest, thou shalt not reape, neither gather the grapes that thou hast left vnlaboured: for it shalbe a yeere of rest vnto the land. 6 And the rest of the lande shall be meate for you, euen for thee, and for thy seruant, and for thy mayde, and for thy hired seruant, and for the stranger that soiourneth with thee: 7 And for thy cattell, and for the beastes that are in thy lande shall all the encrease thereof be meate. 8 Also thou shalt number seuen Sabbaths of yeeres vnto thee, euen seuen times seuen yeere: and the space of the seuen Sabbaths of yeeres will be vnto thee nine and fourtie yeere. 9 Then thou shalt cause to blow the trumpet of the Iubile in the tenth day of the seuenth moneth: euen in the day of the reconciliation shall ye make the trumpet blowe, throughout all your lande. 10 And ye shall halowe that yeere, euen the fiftieth yeere, and proclaime libertie in the lande to all the inhabitants thereof: it shalbe the Iubile vnto you, and ye shall returne euery man vnto his possession, and euery man shall returne vnto his familie. 11 This fiftieth yeere shalbe a yeere of Iubile vnto you: ye shall not sowe, neither reape that which groweth of it selfe, neither gather the grapes thereof, that are left vnlaboured. 12 For it is the Iubile, it shall be holy vnto you: ye shall eate of the encrease thereof out of the fielde. 13 In the yeere of this Iubile, ye shall returne euery man vnto his possession. 14 And when thou sellest ought to thy neighbour, or byest at thy neighbours hande, ye shall not oppresse one another: 15 But according to the nomber of yeeres after the Iubile thou shalt bye of thy neighbour: also according to the nomber of the yeeres of the reuenues, he shall sell vnto thee. 16 According to the multitude of yeeres, thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewnesse of yeeres, thou shalt abate the price of it: for the nomber of fruites doeth he sell vnto thee. 17 Oppresse not ye therefore any man his neighbour, but thou shalt feare thy God: for I am the Lord your God. 18 Wherefore ye shall obey mine ordinances, and keepe my lawes, and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land in safetie. 19 And the lande shall giue her fruite, and ye shall eate your fill, and dwell therein in safetie. 20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eate the seuenth yeere, for we shall not sowe, nor gather in our increase? 21 I will sende my blessing vpon you in the sixt yeere, and it shall bring foorth fruite for three yeeres. 22 And ye shall sowe the eight yeere, and eate of the olde fruite vntill the ninth yeere: vntill the fruite thereof come, ye shall eate the olde. 23 Also the lande shall not be solde to be cut off from the familie: for the land is mine, and ye be but strangers and soiourners with me. 24 Therefore in all the land of your possession ye shall graunt a redemption for the lande. 25 If thy brother be impouerished, and sell his possession, then his redeemer shall come, euen his neere kinsman, and bye out that which his brother solde. 26 And if he haue no redeemer, but hath gotten and founde to bye it out, 27 Then shall he count the yeeres of his sale, and restore the ouerplus to the man, to whome he solde it: so shall he returne to his possession. 28 But if he can not get sufficient to restore to him, then that which is solde, shall remaine in the hande of him that hath bought it, vntill the yere of the Iubile: and in the Iubile it shall come out, and he shall returne vnto his possession. 29 Likewise if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled citie, he may bye it out againe within a whole yeere after it is solde: within a yeere may he bye it out. 30 But if it be not bought out within ye space of a ful yeere, then the house that is in the walled citie, shalbe stablished, as cut off from the familie, to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not goe out in the Iubile. 31 But the houses of villages, which haue no walles round about them, shalbe esteemed as the fielde of the countrey: they may be bought out againe, and shall goe out in the Iubile. 32 Notwithstanding, the cities of the Leuites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Leuites redeeme at all seasons. 33 And if a man purchase of the Leuites, the house that was solde, and the citie of their possession shall goe out in the Iubile: for the houses of the cities of the Leuites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the fielde of the suburbes of their cities, shall not be solde: for it is their perpetuall possession. 35 Moreouer, if thy brother be impouerished, and fallen in decay with thee, thou shalt relieue him, and as a stranger and soiourner, so shall he liue with thee. 36 Thou shalt take no vsurie of him, nor vantage, but thou shalt feare thy God, that thy brother may liue with thee. 37 Thou shalt not giue him thy money to vsurie, nor lende him thy vitailes for increase. 38 I am the Lord your God, which haue brought you out of the lande of Egypt, to giue you the lande of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 If thy brother also that dwelleth by thee, be impouerished, and be sold vnto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serue as a bond seruant, 40 But as an hired seruant, and as a soiourner he shalbe with thee: he shall serue thee vnto the yeere of the Iubile. 41 Then shall he depart from thee, both hee, and his children with him, and shall returne vnto his familie, and vnto the possession of his fathers shall he returne: 42 For they are my seruants, whom I brought out of the lande of Egypt: they shall not be solde as bondmen are solde. 43 Thou shalt not rule ouer him cruelly, but shalt feare thy God. 44 Thy bond seruant also, and thy bond maid, which thou shalt haue, shalbe of the heathen that are rounde about you: of them shall ye bye seruants and maydes. 45 And moreouer of the children of the stragers, that are soiourners among you, of them shall ye bye, and of their families that are with you, which they begate in your lande: these shall be your possession. 46 So ye shall take them as inheritance for your children after you, to possesse them by inheritance, ye shall vse their labours for euer: but ouer your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one ouer another with crueltie. 47 If a soiourner or a stranger dwelling by thee get riches, and thy brother by him be impouerished, and sell him selfe vnto the stranger or soiourner dwelling by thee, or to the stocke of the strangers familie, 48 After that he is solde, he may be bought out: one of his brethren may bye him out, 49 Or his vncle, or his vncles sonne may bye him out, or any of the kindred of his flesh among his familie, may redeeme him: either if he can get so much, he may bye him selfe out. 50 Then he shall recken with his byer from the yeere that he was solde to him, vnto the yere of Iubile: and the money of his sale shalbe according to the number of yeeres: according to the time of an hyred seruant shall he be with him. 51 If there be many yeeres behind, according to them he shall giue againe for his deliuerance, of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remaine but fewe yeeres vnto the yeere of Iubile, then he shall count with him, and according to his yeeres giue againe for his redemption. 53 He shalbe with him yeere by yeere as an hired seruant: he shall not rule cruelly ouer him in thy sight. 54 And if he be not redeemed thus, he shall go out in the yeere of Iubile, he, and his children with him. 55 For vnto me the children of Israel are seruants: they are my seruants, who I haue brought out of the land of Egypt: I am ye Lord your God.