Study Desk

Celebrate this festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This law will continue from now on; you will celebrate it in the seventh month.

Live in shelters for seven days. All the people born in Israel must live in shelters

"Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from crushed olives. That oil is for the lamps so that these lamps may never go out.

"Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread with it, using four quarts of flour for each loaf.

The people held him as a prisoner while they waited for the Lord 's command to be made clear to them.

Broken bone for broken bone, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Anyone who injures another person must be injured in the same way in return.

"‘The law will be the same for the foreigner as for those from your own country. I am the Lord your God.'"

You may plant seed in your field for six years, and you may trim your vineyards for six years and bring in their fruits.

"‘You may eat whatever the land produces during that year of rest. It will be food for your men and women servants, for your hired workers, and for the foreigners living in your country.

It will also be food for your cattle and the wild animals of your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

"‘Count off seven groups of seven years, or forty-nine years. During that time there will be seven years of rest for the land.

Make the fiftieth year a special year, and announce freedom for all the people living in your country. This time will be called Jubilee. You will each go back to your own property, each to your own family and family group.

The fiftieth year will be a special time for you to celebrate. Don't plant seeds, or harvest the crops that grow by themselves, or gather grapes from the vines that are not trimmed.

That year is Jubilee; it will be a holy time for you. You may eat only the crops that come from the field.

If you want to buy your neighbor's land, count the number of years since the last Jubilee, and use that number to decide the right price. If your neighbor sells the land to you, count the number of years left for harvesting crops, and use that number to decide the right price.

I will send you such a great blessing during the sixth year that the land will produce enough crops for three years.

"‘The land really belongs to me, so you can't sell it for all time. You are only foreigners and travelers living for a while on my land.

People might sell their land, but it must always be possible for the family to get its land back.

"‘If someone sells a home in a walled city, for a full year after it is sold, the person has the right to buy it back.

Don't lend him money for interest, and don't try to make a profit from the food he buys.