Leviticus 25:1-22

The Sabbath Year

1 The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai,
2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD.
3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.
4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.
6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,
7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

The Year of Jubilee

8 “ ‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years.
9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.
10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.
11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.
12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
13 “ ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.
14 “ ‘If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other.
15 You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops.
16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops.
17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.
18 “ ‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.
19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.
20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?”
21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year 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 32

  • 1. Exodus 19:11
  • 2. Exodus 23:10
  • 3. ver 5,6,20; Leviticus 26:35; 2 Chronicles 36:21
  • 4. Isaiah 36:16; Isaiah 37:30
  • 5. 2 Kings 19:29
  • 6. Genesis 40:10; Numbers 6:3; Numbers 13:20; Deuteronomy 23:24; Nehemiah 13:15; Isaiah 5:2
  • 7. ver 4,11
  • 8. S ver 4; ver 20
  • 9. Exodus 23:11
  • 10. Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 10:8; Joshua 6:4; Judges 3:27; Judges 7:16; 1 Samuel 13:3; Isaiah 27:13; Zechariah 9:14
  • 11. S Leviticus 16:29
  • 12. S Exodus 30:10
  • 13. Isaiah 61:1; Jer 34:8,15,17; S Luke 4:19
  • 14. ver 11,28,50; Leviticus 27:17,21; Numbers 36:4; Ezekiel 46:17
  • 15. ver 27
  • 16. S ver 10
  • 17. S ver 5
  • 18. ver 10
  • 19. S Leviticus 19:13; 1 Samuel 12:3,4; 1 Corinthians 6:8
  • 20. ver 27; Leviticus 27:18,23
  • 21. ver 27,51,52
  • 22. S Leviticus 19:13; Job 31:16; Proverbs 22:22; Jeremiah 7:5,6; Jeremiah 21:12; Jeremiah 22:3,15; Zechariah 7:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:6
  • 23. S Leviticus 19:14
  • 24. S Leviticus 19:32
  • 25. S Genesis 26:5
  • 26. ver 19; Leviticus 26:4,5; Deuteronomy 12:10; Deuteronomy 33:28; Job 5:22; Psalms 4:8; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 32:37; Jeremiah 33:16; Ezekiel 28:26; Ezekiel 34:25; Ezekiel 38:14
  • 27. Leviticus 26:4; Deuteronomy 11:14; Deuteronomy 28:12; Isaiah 55:10
  • 28. S ver 18
  • 29. S ver 4
  • 30. Deuteronomy 28:8,12; Psalms 133:3; Psalms 134:3; Psalms 147:13; Ezekiel 44:30; Haggai 2:19; Malachi 3:10
  • 31. S Exodus 16:5
  • 32. Leviticus 26:10
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