UNROLL
A terraced hillside left to rest in the seventh year: unpruned vines sprawling over an old stone wall, self-sown grain and wildflowers on the terraces, in soft morning light under a clear pale sky.

The Book of

Leviticus 25

Even the land gets a Sabbath, and every fiftieth year everyone goes home.

55 verses≈ 10 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–7The offeringsHow sinners draw near
  2. 8–10The priestsOrdained, and a warning
  3. 11–15Clean and uncleanLife before a holy God
  4. 16The Day of AtonementSins carried away
  5. 17–27A holy peopleBe holy, for I am holyChapter 25

The Seventh Year

Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “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.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

In a sprawling, unpruned vineyard in the Sabbath year, a hired laborer and a foreign traveler pick grapes for a meal while a gazelle watches from the field's edge.

The law

The Sabbath year

  1. Six years: sow, prune, gather

    For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

  2. Rest

    Year seven: rest for the land

    But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD.

  3. No sowing, no pruning

    You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.

  4. No reaping what grows by itself

    You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines.

  5. A year of complete rest

    The land must have a year of complete rest.

  6. Shared

    Its yield is food for all

    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. Livestock and wild animals too

    and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

  8. All its growth may be food

    All its growth may serve as food.

The sevens

thenDay 7the Sabbathrest (23:3)Year 7the land rests(25:4)7 × 7yearsforty-nineyears (25:8)Atonement firstthe horn on that day(25:9)Year 50Jubilee: liberty, home(25:10)The LORD’sfavorJesus reads Isaiah(Luke 4)

Whiteboard

Israel lived by sevens. Every seventh day the people rested. Every seventh year the land rested. After “seven times seven years” came the fiftieth, the Jubilee, when debts of land were undone and families went home. And it began on the Day of Atonement: release came only after sin was dealt with. Centuries later Jesus stood up in Nazareth and announced the year of the Lord’s favor.

The Year of Jubilee

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.

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.

So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.

The law

The fiftieth year

  1. Return

    Each returns to his property and clan

    It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.

  2. Rest

    No sowing or reaping

    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.

  3. Holy to you

    For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you.

  4. Eat only from the field

    You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.

proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants

Leviticus 25:10

Return of Property

The law

Fair dealing in land

  1. Jubilee

    Each returns to his property

    In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

  2. Fairness

    Do not take advantage

    If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

  3. Price

    Priced by years since the Jubilee

    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.

  4. You buy harvests, not land

    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.

  5. Fairness

    Fear your God

    Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

Reflect

Only a tenant

In Israel no one could sell his land for good. A buyer was really paying for “a given number of harvests,” and at the Jubilee it went home. Everything you hold is on loan from God too: your home, your money, your time, even your years. What do you hold as if it were yours for good? Write it down, and give it back to Him.

The Blessing of Obedience

You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’ But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years. 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

The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

Leviticus 25:23

God

The law

Houses, and the Levites’ cities

  1. Walled city

    A walled-city house: one year

    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.

  2. Unredeemed: the buyer’s for good

    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.

  3. Not released in the Jubilee

    It is not to be released in the Jubilee.

  4. Village

    Village houses count as fields

    But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields.

  5. Redeemable; released in Jubilee

    They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

  6. Levites

    Levites may always redeem

    As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.

  7. Their houses return in Jubilee

    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.

  8. Their pastures never sold

    But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.

Redemption of the Poor

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. Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you. You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.

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.

Pray

An open hand

God told Israel to help a brother who “becomes destitute,” and not to profit from his need, because He had brought them all out of Egypt. Think of someone near you who is struggling. Pray for them by name. Thank God for what He has given you, and ask Him for a generous hand and a way to help this week, expecting nothing back.

Redemption of Bondmen

The law

A brother who sells himself

  1. Not forced into slave labor

    If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

  2. Like a hired worker until Jubilee

    Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

  3. Release

    Released with his children

    Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.

  4. The reason

    God’s servants are not sold as slaves

    Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

  5. Fear God

    Do not rule harshly

    You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

At noon in an olive grove, an Israelite laborer with a hoe rests in the shade beside the grove's owner, the two men sharing water from one skin as equals.

The law

Servants from the nations

  1. Bought from the nations around

    Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.

  2. Or from foreigners among you

    You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land.

  3. They may become your property

    These may become your property.

  4. Inherited; slaves for life

    You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life.

  5. Brothers

    No harsh rule over a brother

    But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.

Redemption of Servants

The law

Redeemed from a foreigner

  1. Sold to a prosperous foreigner

    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,

  2. He keeps the right of redemption

    he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself.

  3. Redeemer

    A brother may redeem him

    One of his brothers may redeem him:

  4. Uncle, cousin or close kin

    either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him.

  5. Himself

    Or he may redeem himself

    Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

  6. Price

    Count the years to the Jubilee

    He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee.

  7. Priced by a hired hand’s wages

    The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.

  8. Many years: pay more

    If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.

  9. Few years: pay less

    If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to calculate and pay his redemption according to his remaining years.

  10. Protection

    Treated as hired, never harshly

    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.

At dawn a father, his wife and two children walk out of a farmyard gate onto a road toward their home hills, seen from behind, a laden donkey beside them.

Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee. 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.

0:15

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Question

Quick question

Every fiftieth year a horn was to sound throughout the land of Israel to begin the Jubilee.

On which day of the year was the Jubilee horn to be sounded?

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Leviticus 25

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A verse to carry with you

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.

Leviticus 25:10

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