Laws concerning the Sabbatical Year

15 “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.^(A)

¹⁰ Moses commanded them, “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the Festival of Booths,^[a](A)

² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord.^{(A) 3} Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Sabbatical Year and Sabbath

¹⁰ “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield,^{(A) 11} but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard and with your olive orchard.

² “When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt.^(A)

⁸ And Baruch son of Neriah did all that the prophet Jeremiah ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

⁹ In the fifth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.^{(A) 10} Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.^(B)

The Scroll Read in the Palace

¹¹ When Micaiah son of Gemariah son of Shaphan heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll,^{(C) 12} he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber, and all the officials were sitting there: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the officials.^{(D) 13} And Micaiah told them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people.^{(E) 14} Then all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah son of Shelemiah son of Cushi to say to Baruch, “Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.^{(F) 15} And they said to him, “Sit down and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them.^{(G) 16} When they heard all the words, they turned to one another in alarm and said to Baruch, “We certainly must report all these words to the king.”^{(H) 17} Then they questioned Baruch, “Tell us now, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?” ¹⁸ Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the scroll.”

The Good News of Deliverance