The Sabbath Year

25 ^(A)The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into ^(B)the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years you shall sow your field, and for 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 the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ^5 (C)You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ⁶ The Sabbath of the land^[a] shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves^[b] and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, ⁷ and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: ^(D)all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

⁸ “You shall count seven weeks^[c] of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall sound ^(E)the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. ^(F)On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and ^(G)proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of ^(H)you shall return to his clan. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it ^(I)you shall neither sow nor reap ^(J)what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. ^(K)You may eat the produce of the field.^[d]

^13 (L)“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. ¹⁴ And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, ^(M)you shall not wrong one another. ^15 (N)You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. ¹⁶ If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. ^17 (O)You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

^18 (P)“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then ^(Q)you will dwell in the land securely. ^19 (R)The land will yield its fruit, and ^(S)you will eat your fill ^(T)and dwell in it securely. ²⁰ And if you say, ^(U)‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if ^(V)we may not sow or gather in our crop?’

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

18 ^(A)In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(B)Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. ² He was ^(C)twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was ^(D)Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ^3 (E)And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. ^4 (F)He removed the high places and broke the ^(G)pillars and cut down ^(H)the Asherah. And he broke in pieces ^(I)the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).^{[a] 5 (J)}He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(K)so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. ^6 (L)For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. ^7 (M)And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, ^(N)he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. ^8 (O)He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, ^(P)from watchtower to fortified city.

⁹ In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(Q)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, ¹⁰ and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹ The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in ^(R)Halah, and on the ^(S)Habor, ^(T)the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

¹⁵ Moreover, ^(A)I swore to them in the wilderness ^(B)that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land ^(C)flowing with milk and honey, ^(D)the most glorious of all lands, ¹⁶ because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; ^(E)for their heart went after their idols. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, ^(F)my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or ^(G)make a full end of them in the wilderness.

¹⁸ “And I said to ^(H)their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk ^(I)in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, ^(J)nor defile yourselves with their idols. ^19 (K)I am the Lord your God; ^(L)walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, ²⁰ and ^(M)keep my Sabbaths holy that ^(N)they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ ^21 (O)But the children ^(P)rebelled against me. ^(Q)They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

^(R)“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. ^22 (S)But I withheld my hand ^(T)and acted for the sake of my name, ^(U)that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. ^23 (V)Moreover, ^(W)I swore to them in the wilderness ^(X)that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, ²⁴ because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, ^(Y)and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols. ^25 (Z)Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, ²⁶ and I defiled them through ^(AA)their very gifts ^(AB)in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it ^(AC)that they might know that I am the Lord.

²⁷ “Therefore, ^(AD)son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: In this also your fathers blasphemed me, by ^(AE)dealing treacherously with me. ²⁸ For when I had brought them into the land that ^(AF)I swore to give them, then wherever they saw ^(AG)any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented ^(AH)the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their pleasing aromas, and there they poured out their drink offerings. ²⁹ (I said to them, ^(AI)‘What is the high place to which you go?’ So its name is called Bamah^[a] to this day.)

³⁰ “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: ^(AJ)Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go ^(AK)whoring after their detestable things? ³¹ When you present your gifts and ^(AL)offer up your children in fire,^[b] you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And ^(AM)shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? ^(AN)As I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.

^32 (AO)“What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ^(AP)‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, ^(AQ)and worship wood and stone.’

Martha and Mary

³⁸ Now as they went on their way, Jesus^[a] entered a village. And a woman named ^(A)Martha ^(B)welcomed him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called ^(C)Mary, who ^(D)sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are ^(E)anxious and troubled about many things, ⁴² but one thing is necessary.^[b] Mary has chosen ^(F)the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

⁸ For even if I boast a little too much of ^(A)our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. ⁹ I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. ¹⁰ For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but ^(B)his bodily presence is weak, and ^(C)his speech of no account.” ¹¹ Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. ¹² Not that we dare to classify or ^(D)compare ourselves with some of those who ^(E)are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are ^(F)without understanding.

¹³ But we will not boast ^(G)beyond limits, but will ^(H)boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, ^(I)to reach even to you. ¹⁴ For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. ^(J)For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that ^(K)as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be ^(L)greatly enlarged, ¹⁶ so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. ¹⁷ “Let ^(M)the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” ¹⁸ For it is ^(N)not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one ^(O)whom the Lord commends.