Leviticus 25:1-22

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

1 The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,
2 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD.
3 '1Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,
4 but during 2the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
5 'Your harvest's aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.
6 '3All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves *, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you.
7 'Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.
8 'You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine * years.
9 'You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on 4the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.
10 'You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and 5proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and 6each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
11 'You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.
12 'For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
13 '7On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.
14 'If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend's hand, 8you shall not wrong one another.
15 'Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.
16 '9In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.
17 'So 10you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
18 'You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that 11you may live securely on the land.
19 'Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.
20 'But if you say, "12What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?"
21 then 13I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years.
22 'When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat 14old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.

Leviticus 25:1-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 25

In this chapter the Israelites are directed, when come into the land of Canaan, to observe every seventh year as a sabbatical year, in which there was to be no tillage of the land, and yet there would be a sufficiency for man and beast, Le 25:1-7; and every fiftieth year as a year of jubilee, in which also there was to be no tillage of the land, and every man was to return to his possession or estate, which had been sold to another any time before this, Le 25:8-17; and a promise of safety and plenty in the seventh year is made to encourage the observance of it, Le 25:18-22; and several laws and rules are delivered out concerning the sale of lands, the redemption of them, and their return to their original owner in the year of jubilee, Le 25:23-28; and the sale of houses, and the redemption of them, and the difference between those in walled cities and those in villages, with respect thereunto, Le 25:29-31; and also concerning the houses of the cities of the Levites, and the fields of the suburbs of them, Le 25:32-34; to which are added some instructions about relieving decayed, persons, and lending and giving to them, without taking usury of them, Le 25:34-38; and other laws concerning the release of such Israelites as had sold themselves for servants to the Israelites, in the year of jubilee, since none but Heathens were to be bondmen and bondmaids for ever, Le 25:39-46; and of such who were sold to proselytes, Le 25:47-55.

Cross References 14

  • 1. Exodus 23:10, 11
  • 2. Leviticus 25:20
  • 3. Leviticus 25:20, 21
  • 4. Leviticus 23:27
  • 5. Jer 34:8, 15, 17
  • 6. Lev 25:13, 28, 54
  • 7. Leviticus 25:10; Leviticus 27:24
  • 8. Leviticus 25:17
  • 9. Lev 25:27, 51, 52
  • 10. Leviticus 25:14; Proverbs 14:31; Proverbs 22:22; Jeremiah 7:5, 6; 1 Thessalonians 4:6
  • 11. Leviticus 26:5; Deuteronomy 12:10; Jeremiah 23:6
  • 12. Leviticus 25:4
  • 13. Deuteronomy 28:8
  • 14. Leviticus 26:10

Footnotes 9

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