The Seventh Year (Exodus 23:10–13; Deuteronomy 15:1–6)
1 UST Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai, BSB BSB: Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 UST “Tell the Israelites this: When you enter the land that I am about to give you, you must{ regularly} let the ground rest for a Sabbath to{ honor me,} Yahweh. 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 UST For six years 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 UST But during the seventh year you must allow your fields to rest completely as a Sabbath{ to honor me,} 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 UST Do not organize harvesting grain or gathering grapes that grow on their own without your planting or pruning. 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 UST But even while it is resting, the land will provide you with food. You, your male and female servants, workers whom you have hired, and people who are living among you temporarily— you all may 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 UST Your livestock and other animals on your land are also permitted to eat whatever the land produces during that year. 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 UST Count how many rest years you have had. After seven rest years, that is after seven times seven years(which is 49 years), 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.
9 UST blow trumpets everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month of the next year. These trumpets will announce the Day of Atonement throughout the land. BSB BSB: Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.
10 UST Make this 50 th year a special celebration and announce that everyone in the country is free. This is the year for restoring!{(When you come into the land, Yahweh will give each family some land that is to be theirs permanently.)} You must give back any of that land{ that they have had to sell because of debts}. You must also free and send any Israelites who had to become slaves{ because of debts} back to their families. 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 UST The fiftieth year will be a year for restoring. 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 UST Because it is a time of restoring, you will treat it as sacred and eat only what you take directly from the fields. 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 UST In that year of restoring, everyone should return to his own inherited property. BSB BSB: In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.
14 UST 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 because he is your fellow Israelite. BSB BSB: If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
15 UST Pay another Israelite for his land an amount depending on the number of years since the last celebration of restoring. He should sell it for an amount based on how many years that you can harvest until the next time for restoring. 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 UST If there will be many years before the next time for restoring, the price will be higher. If there will be only a few years until the next time for restoring, the price will be lower. He is really selling you the number of crops you can harvest before the next year of restoring. 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 UST Do not cheat each other. Instead, honor your God. Remember: I, Yahweh, am your God. 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 UST Obey all my rules and instructions 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 UST The crops will grow well on the land, you will have plenty to eat, and you will live safely in your country. BSB BSB: Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.
20 UST 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 UST { Do not worry,} I will bless your crops very much during the sixth year. That year there will be enough crops to feed 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 UST You will be able to plant seed during the eighth year and wait for the crops to grow while still eating 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 UST 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 like foreigners{ 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 UST 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 UST So if one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of his property, his closest relative(that is, his redeemer) may come and buy that land back from you for the poor man. 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 UST However, even if a man has no one to buy the land for him, he may prosper again and save 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 UST He must calculate how many years there will be until the next year of restoring. 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. The buyer must sell it back to the original owner. 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 UST But if the original owner does not save 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 restoring. In that year the buyer must restore it to him, and the original owner 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 UST If someone sells a house in a city that has a wall around it, he may buy it back from the man who bought it for one year. 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 UST If he does not buy it back during that year, then the house in the walled city 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 restoring. 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 UST 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 may 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 restoring. 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 UST The descendants of Levi are a special case however. If they sell their houses in the cities that belong to them, they may 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 UST But even if they do not buy back those houses, they will become theirs again in the year of restoring 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 UST But they may not sell the pastureland near their towns. 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 UST 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. You will help him stay living in your country. 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 UST If you lend money to him, do not make him pay back more than he borrowed. Instead, show by what you do that you honor your God; you must help that Israelite 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 UST If you lend him money, do not make him pay back more than he borrowed. If you sell food to him, charge him only what you paid for it. BSB BSB: You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
38 UST Remember: I am Yahweh your God. I 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 UST 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 UST 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 restoring. 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 UST During that year, you must free him and his children, 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 UST You will do this because all the Israelites are my slaves. I freed them 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 UST And do not treat the Israelites whom you buy cruelly. Instead, honor your God. BSB BSB: You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
45 UST You may also buy some of the foreigners who are living temporarily 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 UST for the rest of your life. After you die, your children may own them. But you must not act in brutal ways toward your fellow Israelites, because they are your relatives. 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 UST Suppose a foreigner who is living among you becomes rich, and 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 UST Even after he sells himself, someone may pay back his debt so he can go free. One of his relatives may pay back his debt so he can go free. BSB BSB: he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:
49 UST An uncle or a cousin or another relative in his clan may pay back his debt so he can go free. Or, if he prospers and gets enough money, he may pay back his own debt so he can go free. 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 UST He and his master must count the number of years from when he sold himself to the next year of restoring. The price he pays to the man who bought him will depend on the standard pay that a master would give to a hired worker for that number of 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 UST If there are a lot of years that remain until the year of restoring, he must pay a larger amount of the money to go free. BSB BSB: If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.
52 UST If there are only a few years that remain until the year of restoring, he and his master must agree on a smaller amount for him to go free. 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 UST While he works for a foreign master, the master must treat him like he would treat an annual hired worker. All of you Israelites must make sure that the foreigner 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 UST And even if a fellow Israelite who has sold himself to a foreigner is not able to pay to go free by any of these ways, he and his children must go free in the year of restoring. 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 UST This is because the Israelites are my slaves. I freed them from being slaves in Egypt to be my slaves. Remember: I am Yahweh your God. 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.