Study Desk

You may raise grain and grapes for six years,

This is to be a time of complete rest for your fields and vineyards, so don't harvest anything they produce.

I will see to it that you harvest enough in the sixth year to last for three years.

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.

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.

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.

by paying your owner for the number of years you would still be a slave before the next Year of Celebration.

Then, if you still refuse to obey me, I will punish you seven times for each of your sins,

All of your hard work will be for nothing—and there will be no harvest of grain or fruit.

I'll really get furious and punish you terribly for your sins!

In fact, you will be so desperate for food that you will eat your own children.

and let it rest during the time that you are in a foreign country, paying for your rebellion against me and my laws.

Moses was on Mount Sinai when the Lord gave him these laws and teachings for the people of Israel.

you may do so by paying the following amounts, weighed according to the official standards: fifty pieces of silver for men ages twenty to sixty, and thirty pieces for women; twenty pieces of silver for young men ages five to twenty, and ten pieces for young women; fifteen pieces of silver for men ages sixty and above and ten pieces for women; five pieces of silver for boys ages one month to five years, and three pieces for girls.

If you have promised to give someone to me and can't afford to pay the full amount for that person's release, you will be taken to a priest, and he will decide how much you can afford.

If you try to substitute any other animal, no matter how good, for the one you promised, they will both become holy and must be sacrificed.

Donkeys are unfit for sacrifice, so if you promise me a donkey, you must bring it to the priest,

If you promise part of your family's land to me, its value must be determined by the bushels of seed needed to plant the land, and the rate will be ten pieces of silver for every bushel of seed.

If you promise me a donkey, you may buy it back by adding an additional twenty percent to its value. If you don't buy it back, it can be sold to someone else for whatever a priest has said it is worth.

Anything that you completely dedicate to me must be completely destroyed. It cannot be bought back or sold. Every person, animal, and piece of property that you dedicate completely is only for me.