The Seventh Year
(Deuteronomy 15.1-11)1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded him 2 to give the following regulations to the people of Israel. When you enter the land that the Lord is giving you, you shall honor the Lord by not cultivating the land every seventh year. 3 You shall plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. 4 But the seventh year is to be a year of complete rest for the land, a year dedicated to the Lord. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not even harvest the grain that grows by itself without being planted, and do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines; it is a year of complete rest for the land. 6 Although the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you, 7 your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten.
The Year of Restoration
8 Count seven times seven years, a total of forty-nine years. 9 Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land. 10 In this way you shall set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to the original owner or the descendants, and any who have been sold as slaves shall return to their families. 11 You shall not plant your fields or harvest the grain that grows by itself or gather the grapes in your unpruned vineyards. 12 The whole year shall be sacred for you; you shall eat only what the fields produce of themselves.
13 In this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to its original owner. 14 So when you sell land to an Israelite or buy land, do not deal unfairly. 15 The price is to be set according to the number of years the land can produce crops before the next Year of Restoration. 16 If there are many years, the price shall be higher, but if there are only a few years, the price shall be lower, because what is being sold is the number of crops the land can produce. 17 Do not cheat an Israelite, but obey the Lord your God.
The Problem of the Seventh Year
18 Obey all the Lord's laws and commands, so that you may live in safety in the land. 19 The land will produce its crops, and you will have all you want to eat and will live in safety.
20 But someone may ask what there will be to eat during the seventh year, when no fields are planted and no crops gathered. 21 The Lord will bless the land in the sixth year so that it will produce enough food for two years. 22 When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating what you harvested during the sixth year, and you will have enough to eat until the crops you plant that year are harvested.
Restoration of Property
23 Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.
24 When land is sold, the right of the original owner to buy it back must be recognized. 25 If any of you Israelites become poor and are forced to sell your land, your closest relative is to buy it back. 26 If you have no relative to buy it back, you may later become prosperous and have enough to buy it back yourself. 27 In that case you must pay to the one who bought it a sum that will make up for the years remaining until the next Year of Restoration, when you would in any event recover your land. 28 But if you do not have enough money to buy the land back, it remains under the control of the one who bought it until the next Year of Restoration. In that year it will be returned to its original owner.
29 If you sell a house in a walled city, you have the right to buy it back during the first full year from the date of sale. 30 But if you do not buy it back within the year, you lose the right of repurchase, and the house becomes the permanent property of the purchasers and their descendants; it will not be returned in the Year of Restoration. 31 But houses in unwalled villages are to be treated like fields; the original owner has the right to buy them back, and they are to be returned in the Year of Restoration. 32 However, Levites have the right to buy back at any time their property in the cities assigned to them. 33 If a house in one of these cities is sold by a Levite and is not bought back, it must be returned in the Year of Restoration, because the houses which the Levites own in their cities are their permanent property among the people of Israel. 34 But the pasture land around the Levite cities shall never be sold; it is their property forever.
Loans to the Poor
35 If any Israelites living near you become poor and cannot support themselves, you must provide for them as you would for a hired worker, so that they can continue to live near you. 36 Do not charge Israelites any interest, but obey God and let them live near you. 37 Do not make them pay interest on the money you lend them, and do not make a profit on the food you sell them. 38 This is the command of the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt in order to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
Release of Slaves
39 If any Israelites living near you become so poor that they sell themselves to you as a slave, you shall not make them do the work of a slave. 40 They shall stay with you as hired workers and serve you until the next Year of Restoration. 41 At that time they and their children shall leave you and return to their family and to the property of their ancestors. 42 The people of Israel are the Lord's slaves, and he brought them out of Egypt; they must not be sold into slavery. 43 Do not treat them harshly, but obey your God. 44 If you need slaves, you may buy them from the nations around you. 45 You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property, 46 and you may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly.
47 Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. 48 After they are sold, they still have the right to be bought back. A brother 49 or an uncle or a cousin or another close relative may buy them back; or if they themselves earn enough, they may buy their own freedom. 50 They must consult the one who bought them, and they must count the years from the time they sold themselves until the next Year of Restoration and must set the price for their release on the basis of the wages paid hired workers. 51-52 They must refund a part of the purchase price according to the number of years left, 53 as if they had been hired on an annual basis. Their master must not treat them harshly. 54 If they are not set free in any of these ways, they and their children must be set free in the next Year of Restoration. 55 Israelites cannot be permanent slaves, because the people of Israel are the Lord's slaves. He brought them out of Egypt; he is the Lord their God.
1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, When ye shall come into the lande which I giue you, the lande shall keepe Sabbath vnto the Lord. 3 Sixe yeeres thou shalt sowe thy field, and sixe yeeres thou shalt cut thy vineyarde, and gather the fruite thereof. 4 But the seuenth yeere shalbe a Sabbath of rest vnto the lande: it shall be the Lordes Sabbath: thou shalt neither sowe thy fielde, nor cut thy vineyarde. 5 That which groweth of it owne accorde of thy haruest, thou shalt not reape, neither gather the grapes that thou hast left vnlaboured: for it shalbe a yeere of rest vnto the land. 6 And the rest of the lande shall be meate for you, euen for thee, and for thy seruant, and for thy mayde, and for thy hired seruant, and for the stranger that soiourneth with thee: 7 And for thy cattell, and for the beastes that are in thy lande shall all the encrease thereof be meate. 8 Also thou shalt number seuen Sabbaths of yeeres vnto thee, euen seuen times seuen yeere: and the space of the seuen Sabbaths of yeeres will be vnto thee nine and fourtie yeere. 9 Then thou shalt cause to blow the trumpet of the Iubile in the tenth day of the seuenth moneth: euen in the day of the reconciliation shall ye make the trumpet blowe, throughout all your lande. 10 And ye shall halowe that yeere, euen the fiftieth yeere, and proclaime libertie in the lande to all the inhabitants thereof: it shalbe the Iubile vnto you, and ye shall returne euery man vnto his possession, and euery man shall returne vnto his familie. 11 This fiftieth yeere shalbe a yeere of Iubile vnto you: ye shall not sowe, neither reape that which groweth of it selfe, neither gather the grapes thereof, that are left vnlaboured. 12 For it is the Iubile, it shall be holy vnto you: ye shall eate of the encrease thereof out of the fielde. 13 In the yeere of this Iubile, ye shall returne euery man vnto his possession. 14 And when thou sellest ought to thy neighbour, or byest at thy neighbours hande, ye shall not oppresse one another: 15 But according to the nomber of yeeres after the Iubile thou shalt bye of thy neighbour: also according to the nomber of the yeeres of the reuenues, he shall sell vnto thee. 16 According to the multitude of yeeres, thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewnesse of yeeres, thou shalt abate the price of it: for the nomber of fruites doeth he sell vnto thee. 17 Oppresse not ye therefore any man his neighbour, but thou shalt feare thy God: for I am the Lord your God. 18 Wherefore ye shall obey mine ordinances, and keepe my lawes, and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land in safetie. 19 And the lande shall giue her fruite, and ye shall eate your fill, and dwell therein in safetie. 20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eate the seuenth yeere, for we shall not sowe, nor gather in our increase? 21 I will sende my blessing vpon you in the sixt yeere, and it shall bring foorth fruite for three yeeres. 22 And ye shall sowe the eight yeere, and eate of the olde fruite vntill the ninth yeere: vntill the fruite thereof come, ye shall eate the olde. 23 Also the lande shall not be solde to be cut off from the familie: for the land is mine, and ye be but strangers and soiourners with me. 24 Therefore in all the land of your possession ye shall graunt a redemption for the lande. 25 If thy brother be impouerished, and sell his possession, then his redeemer shall come, euen his neere kinsman, and bye out that which his brother solde. 26 And if he haue no redeemer, but hath gotten and founde to bye it out, 27 Then shall he count the yeeres of his sale, and restore the ouerplus to the man, to whome he solde it: so shall he returne to his possession. 28 But if he can not get sufficient to restore to him, then that which is solde, shall remaine in the hande of him that hath bought it, vntill the yere of the Iubile: and in the Iubile it shall come out, and he shall returne vnto his possession. 29 Likewise if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled citie, he may bye it out againe within a whole yeere after it is solde: within a yeere may he bye it out. 30 But if it be not bought out within ye space of a ful yeere, then the house that is in the walled citie, shalbe stablished, as cut off from the familie, to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not goe out in the Iubile. 31 But the houses of villages, which haue no walles round about them, shalbe esteemed as the fielde of the countrey: they may be bought out againe, and shall goe out in the Iubile. 32 Notwithstanding, the cities of the Leuites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Leuites redeeme at all seasons. 33 And if a man purchase of the Leuites, the house that was solde, and the citie of their possession shall goe out in the Iubile: for the houses of the cities of the Leuites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the fielde of the suburbes of their cities, shall not be solde: for it is their perpetuall possession. 35 Moreouer, if thy brother be impouerished, and fallen in decay with thee, thou shalt relieue him, and as a stranger and soiourner, so shall he liue with thee. 36 Thou shalt take no vsurie of him, nor vantage, but thou shalt feare thy God, that thy brother may liue with thee. 37 Thou shalt not giue him thy money to vsurie, nor lende him thy vitailes for increase. 38 I am the Lord your God, which haue brought you out of the lande of Egypt, to giue you the lande of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 If thy brother also that dwelleth by thee, be impouerished, and be sold vnto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serue as a bond seruant, 40 But as an hired seruant, and as a soiourner he shalbe with thee: he shall serue thee vnto the yeere of the Iubile. 41 Then shall he depart from thee, both hee, and his children with him, and shall returne vnto his familie, and vnto the possession of his fathers shall he returne: 42 For they are my seruants, whom I brought out of the lande of Egypt: they shall not be solde as bondmen are solde. 43 Thou shalt not rule ouer him cruelly, but shalt feare thy God. 44 Thy bond seruant also, and thy bond maid, which thou shalt haue, shalbe of the heathen that are rounde about you: of them shall ye bye seruants and maydes. 45 And moreouer of the children of the stragers, that are soiourners among you, of them shall ye bye, and of their families that are with you, which they begate in your lande: these shall be your possession. 46 So ye shall take them as inheritance for your children after you, to possesse them by inheritance, ye shall vse their labours for euer: but ouer your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one ouer another with crueltie. 47 If a soiourner or a stranger dwelling by thee get riches, and thy brother by him be impouerished, and sell him selfe vnto the stranger or soiourner dwelling by thee, or to the stocke of the strangers familie, 48 After that he is solde, he may be bought out: one of his brethren may bye him out, 49 Or his vncle, or his vncles sonne may bye him out, or any of the kindred of his flesh among his familie, may redeeme him: either if he can get so much, he may bye him selfe out. 50 Then he shall recken with his byer from the yeere that he was solde to him, vnto the yere of Iubile: and the money of his sale shalbe according to the number of yeeres: according to the time of an hyred seruant shall he be with him. 51 If there be many yeeres behind, according to them he shall giue againe for his deliuerance, of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remaine but fewe yeeres vnto the yeere of Iubile, then he shall count with him, and according to his yeeres giue againe for his redemption. 53 He shalbe with him yeere by yeere as an hired seruant: he shall not rule cruelly ouer him in thy sight. 54 And if he be not redeemed thus, he shall go out in the yeere of Iubile, he, and his children with him. 55 For vnto me the children of Israel are seruants: they are my seruants, who I haue brought out of the land of Egypt: I am ye Lord your God.