The Seventh Year (Exodus 23:10–13; Deuteronomy 15:1–6)
1 UDB Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai, BSB BSB: Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 UDB "Tell the Israelites that Yahweh is giving these commands to them: When you enter the land that he is about to give you, every seventh year you must honor him by not planting any crops. You must allow the ground to rest. BSB BSB: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD.
3 UDB During six years, you are to plant crops in your fields, prune your grapevines, and harvest your crops. BSB BSB: For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.
4 UDB But during the seventh year you must allow your fields to rest, in order to honor Yahweh. Do not plant seeds in your fields or prune your grapevines during the seventh year. BSB BSB: But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.
5 UDB In the seventh year, you must not bring workers together to harvest whatever grain has grown in your fields; you must not bring workers together to harvest whatever grapes have grown on the vines that you did not cut back. You must allow the land to rest for that one year. BSB BSB: You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest.
6 UDB But you are permitted to eat whatever crops have grown by themselves during that year. You and your male and female servants, and workers whom you have hired, and any foreigners who are living among you—you may all eat those things. BSB BSB: Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you,
7 UDB And your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat them during that year as well. BSB BSB: and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.
The Year of Jubilee 8 UDB After every forty-nine years has ended, you must do this for the celebration of Jubilee. On the tenth day of the seventh month of the next year, blow trumpets throughout the country, to announce the Day of Atonement. BSB BSB: And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.
10 UDB Set apart that year in order to honor Yahweh. You must proclaim everywhere, to all the people, that this year will be the time for giving the land back to the families that first owned it when Yahweh brought you into your land. It will also be the time for setting free any of Yahweh's people who are slaves. BSB BSB: So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.
11 UDB This year of Jubilee, the fiftieth year, will be a year in which you must rejoice and obey Yahweh's special instructions. During that year do not plant anything, and do not harvest in your usual manner the crops or grapes that have grown by themselves. BSB BSB: The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines.
12 UDB It will be a year for you to rejoice in, the year of Jubilee. You will treat it as special, and eat only what has grown by itself. BSB BSB: For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.
Return of Property 13 UDB In that year of celebration, the year of Jubilee, everyone must return to their property to the original owner of it. BSB BSB: In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.
14 UDB If you sell some of your land to a fellow Israelite or if you buy some land from one of them, you must treat that person fairly. BSB BSB: If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
15 UDB If you buy land, the price that you will pay will depend on the number of years until the next celebration of Jubilee. If someone sells land to you, he will charge a price that reflects the number of years remaining until the next year of celebration of Jubilee, when all property will be returned to their original owners. BSB BSB: You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the last Jubilee; he is to sell to you according to the number of harvest years remaining.
16 UDB If there will be many years before the next time for the celebration of Jubilee, the price will be higher. If there will be only a few years until the next year of celebration, the price will be lower. You could say that what he is really selling you is the number of crops you could harvest before the next year of the celebration of Jubilee. BSB BSB: You shall increase the price in proportion to a greater number of years, or decrease it in proportion to a lesser number of years; for he is selling you a given number of harvests.
17 UDB Do not cheat each other. Instead, honor Yahweh. It is Yahweh, whom we Israelites worship, who is commanding us to do these things. BSB BSB: Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
The Blessing of Obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1–14)
18 UDB Obey all my laws carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country. BSB BSB: You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.
19 UDB The crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat. BSB BSB: Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.
20 UDB But you may ask, "If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?" BSB BSB: Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’
21 UDB Yahweh answers you that he will bless you very much during the sixth year, with the result that during that year there will be enough crops to provide food for you for three years. BSB BSB: But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.
22 UDB Then, after you plant seed during the eighth year and wait for the crops to grow, you will eat the food grown in the sixth year; you will continue to eat it until you harvest your crops in the ninth year. BSB BSB: While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.
The Law of Redemption 23 UDB You must not sell any of your land to belong to someone else permanently, because the land is not yours. It is really mine, and you are only living on it temporarily and farming it for me. BSB BSB: The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
24 UDB Throughout the country that you will possess, you must remember that if someone sells some of his land to you, he is permitted to buy it back from you at any time. BSB BSB: Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
25 UDB So if one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of his property to you for money, the person who is most closely related to him is permitted to come and buy back that land for him. BSB BSB: If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.
26 UDB However, if a man has no one to buy the land for him, but if he himself prospers again and has saved enough money to buy that land back, BSB BSB: Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,
27 UDB he must calculate how many years there will be until the next year of celebration. Then he must pay to the man who bought the land the money that the other man would have earned by growing crops on that land for those years. BSB BSB: he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property.
28 UDB But if the original owner does not have enough money to buy back the land that he sold, it will continue to belong to the man who bought it until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee. In that year he will take possession of it again, and he will be able to farm it again. BSB BSB: But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.
29 UDB If someone sells a house in a city that has a wall around it, during the next year he will be permitted to buy it back from the man who bought it. BSB BSB: If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains his right of redemption until a full year after its sale; during that year it may be redeemed.
30 UDB If he does not buy it during that year, it will belong permanently to the man who bought it, and to that man's descendants. He does not need to return it to the original owner in the year of celebration of Jubilee. BSB BSB: If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its buyer and his descendants. It is not to be released in the Jubilee.
31 UDB But houses that are in villages without walls are considered to be as though they were in a field. So if someone sells one of those houses, he is permitted to buy it back at any time. And even if he does not buy it, he will take possession of it again at the year of the celebration of Jubilee. BSB BSB: But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
32 UDB The descendants of Levi are a special case, however. If they sell their houses in the cities that belong to them, they are permitted to buy them back at any time. BSB BSB: As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.
33 UDB But even if they do not buy back those houses, they will become theirs again in the year of the celebration of Jubilee because those houses are in their cities, on land that the other Israelites had given to them. BSB BSB: So whatever belongs to the Levites may be redeemed—a house sold in a city they possess—and must be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites.
34 UDB But the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently. BSB BSB: But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.
Redemption of the Poor 35 UDB If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and is unable to buy what he needs, others of you must help him as you would help a foreigner who is living among you temporarily. BSB BSB: Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
36 UDB If you lend money to him, do not charge any kind of interest. Instead, show by what you do that you honor your God; you must help that man, in order that he will be able to continue to live among you. BSB BSB: Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
37 UDB If you lend him money, do not charge interest; and if you sell food to him, charge him only what you paid for it. Do not try to make a profit from it. BSB BSB: You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
38 UDB Do not forget that it is Yahweh your God who is giving you these commands; it is, after all, Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt to be your God and to give you the land of Canaan. BSB BSB: I 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 39 UDB If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave. BSB BSB: If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
40 UDB Treat him as you treat workers whom you hire or like someone who is living on your land temporarily. He must work for you only until the year of the celebration of Jubilee. BSB BSB: Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
41 UDB During that year, you must free him, and he may go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned. BSB BSB: Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.
42 UDB It is as though we Israelites are all Yahweh's slaves, whom he freed from being slaves in Egypt. So none of you should buy each other and make each other into slaves. BSB BSB: Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.
43 UDB And do not treat the Israelites whom you buy cruelly. Instead, honor Yahweh, our God. BSB BSB: You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
45 UDB You are also permitted to buy some of the foreigners who are living among you, and members of their clans that were born in your country. You may own them. BSB BSB: You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land. These may become your property.
46 UDB They will be your slaves for the remaining years of your life, and after you die, it is permitted for your children to own them. But you must not act in brutal ways toward your fellow Israelites. BSB BSB: You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.
Redemption of Servants 47 UDB Suppose a foreigner who is living among you becomes rich, and if a fellow Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to that foreigner or to a member of his clan, BSB BSB: If a foreigner residing among you prospers, but your countryman dwelling near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner or to a member of his clan,
48 UDB it is permitted for someone to pay for him to be freed. It is permitted for one of his relatives to pay for him to be released. BSB BSB: he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:
49 UDB An uncle or a cousin or another relative in his clan may pay for him to be released. Or, if he prospers and gets enough money, he is permitted to pay for his own release. BSB BSB: either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
50 UDB The man who wants to pay for his own release must count the number of years until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee. The price he pays to the man who bought him will depend on the pay that would be given to a hired worker for that number of remaining years. BSB BSB: He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.
51 UDB If there are a lot of years that remain until the year of celebration, he must pay for his release a larger amount of the money. BSB BSB: If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.
52 UDB If there are only a few years that remain until the year of the celebration of Jubilee, he must pay a smaller amount to be released. BSB BSB: If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to calculate and pay his redemption according to his remaining years.
53 UDB During those years that he is working for the man who bought him, the man who bought him must treat him like he would treat a hired worker, and all of you must make sure that his owner does not treat him cruelly. BSB BSB: He shall be treated like a man hired from year to year, but a foreign owner must not rule over him harshly in your sight.
54 UDB And even if a fellow Israelite who has sold himself to a rich man is not able to pay for himself to be freed by any of these ways, he and his children must be freed in the year of the celebration of Jubilee BSB BSB: Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.
55 UDB because it is as though you Israelites are my slaves whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from being slaves in Egypt.'" BSB BSB: For the Israelites are My servants. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.