What does the Bible say about the year of jubilee?

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Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

• Leviticus 25:1-55

  [1] Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai, [2] "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. [3] Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; [4] but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. [5] What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. [6] The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. [7] For your cattle also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food. [8] "'You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. [9] Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. [10] You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. [11] That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. [12] For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field. [13] "'In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property. [14] "'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. [15] According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. [16] According to the length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. [17] You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God. [18] "'Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. [19] The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. [20] If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;" [21] then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. [22] You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store. [23] "'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. [24] In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land. [25] "'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. [26] If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it; [27] then let him reckon the years since the sale of it, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. [28] But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his propery. [29] "'If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. [30] If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. [31] But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. [32] "'Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. [33] The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. [34] But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. [35] "'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support him among you; then you shall uphold him. As a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. [36] Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you. [37] You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. [38] I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. [39] "'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave. [40] As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee: [41] then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. [42] For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. [43] You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God. [44] "'As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. [45] Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. [46] You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness. [47] "'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family; [48] after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; [49] or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. [50] He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him. [51] If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. [52] If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. [53] As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. [54] "'If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him. [55] For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

• Leviticus 25:10

  You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.

• Deuteronomy 15:1-23

  [1] At the end of every seven years you shall make a release. [2] This is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother; because Yahweh's release has been proclaimed. [3] Of a foreigner you may exact it: but whatever of your is with your brother your hand shall release. [4] However there shall be no poor with you; (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it;) [5] if only you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day. [6] For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you: and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. [7] If there be with you a poor man, one of your brothers, within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; [8] but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need [in that] which he wants. [9] Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. [10] You shall surely give him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because that for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to. [11] For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying, You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land. [12] If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold to you, and serve you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. [13] When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty: [14] you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress; as Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. [15] You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you: therefore I command you this thing today. [16] It shall be, if he tell you, I will not go out from you; because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you; [17] then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your maid-servant you shall do likewise. [18] It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for to the double of the hire of a hireling has he served you six years: and Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. [19] All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock you shall sanctify to Yahweh your God: you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. [20] You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. [21] If it have any blemish, [as if it be] lame or blind, any ill blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. [22] You shall eat it within your gates: the unclean and the clean [shall eat it] alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart. [23] Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground as water.

• Isaiah 61:1-11

  [1] The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening [of the prison] to those who are bound; [2] to proclaim the year of Yahweh's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; [3] to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified. [4] They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. [5] Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers. [6] But you shall be named the priests of Yahweh; men shall call you the ministers of our God: you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. [7] Instead of your shame [you shall have] double; and instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be to them. [8] For I, Yahweh, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. [9] Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which Yahweh has blessed. [10] I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. [11] For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

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