Study Desk

But the seventh year will be a Year of Rest for the land, a Year of Rest to the Lord. You will not plant seeds in your field or take care of your vines.

You will not gather what grows of itself in your field. And do not gather the fruit of the vines that have not been cared for. The land will have a Year of Rest.

During the Year of Rest the land will give food for you, for your men and women servants, the man you pay to work for you, and the stranger who lives with you.

‘You are to number seven Years of Rest for yourself, seven times seven years. The time of the seven Years of Rest will be forty-nine years.

You will honor the fiftieth year as holy. And let it be known in all the land that all who are living there are free. It will be a happy time for you. Each of you will return to what is his. Each will return to his family.

That fiftieth year will be a happy time for you. You will not plant seeds in the field, or gather the food that grows of itself, or gather fruit from the vines that are not cared for.

You will make the price more if there are many years, and make the price less if there are few years. For he is selling you the food that is gathered each year.

I will let My good come upon you in the sixth year, so it will give you enough food for three years.

‘The land will not be sold to be kept forever. For the land is Mine. You are only strangers staying with Me.

For all the land you have, you must be willing to let it go.

But if he is not able to buy it again for himself, then what he has sold will belong to the one who bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Year of Jubilee it will be let go and he may return to it.

‘If a man sells a house within the walls of a city, he has the right to buy it back for a whole year from the time he sold it. He can buy it during that year.

But if it is not bought back again for him within a whole year, then the house within the city walls belongs forever to the family of the one who bought it. It will not be returned to him in the Year of Jubilee.

If a house is not bought again by a Levite, then the house that was sold in one of their cities will be returned to him in the Year of Jubilee. For the houses of the Levites belong to them among the people of Israel.

Do not make him pay for the use of the money he owes you. But fear your God, so your brother may live with you.

Do not make him pay for the use of your money or your food.

He will be as a man who is paid to work for you, as one who is traveling from place to place, until the Year of Jubilee.

For I brought them out of the land of Egypt as My servants. They are not to be sold as a servant.

Do not make it hard for him, but fear your God.

You may give them to your children after you, to receive as their own. You can have them as servants forever. But do not make it hard for your brothers, the people of Israel.