Sabbath Years and Jubilee

25 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: ² “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to the Lord. ³ You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. ⁴ But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest^(A) for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You are not to reap what grows by itself from your crop, or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It is to be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶ Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you—for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired worker or alien who resides with you. ⁷ All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

⁸ “You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to forty-nine. ⁹ Then you are to sound a ram’s horn loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement.^{(B) 10} You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee,^(C) when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan. ¹¹ The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines. ¹² It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.

¹³ “In this Year of Jubilee, each of you will return to his property. ¹⁴ If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, do not cheat^(D) one another. ¹⁵ You are to make the purchase from your neighbor based on the number of years since the last Jubilee. He is to sell to you based on the number of remaining harvest years. ¹⁶ You are to increase its price in proportion to a greater amount of years, and decrease its price in proportion to a lesser amount of years, because what he is selling to you is a number of harvests. ¹⁷ You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ “You are to keep my statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land.^{(E) 19} Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. ²⁰ If you wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’ ²¹ I will appoint my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ²² When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.

²³ “The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine, and you are only aliens and temporary residents on my land.^{[a](F) 24} You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy. ²⁵ If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers^[b] and obtains enough to redeem his land, ²⁷ he may calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man he sold it to, and return to his property. ²⁸ But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of its purchaser until the Year of Jubilee. It is to be released at the Jubilee, so that he may return to his property.

²⁹ “If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee. ³¹ But houses in settlements that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.

³² “Concerning the Levitical cities,^(G) the Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess. ³³ Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem^[c]—a house sold in a city they possess—is to be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possession among the Israelites. ³⁴ The open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.

³⁵ “If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among^[d] you, you are to support him as an alien or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. ³⁶ Do not profit or take interest from him,^(H) but fear your God and let your brother live among you. ³⁷ You are not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit. ³⁸ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹ “If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you,^(I) you must not force him to do slave labor. ⁴⁰ Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he may work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then he and his children are to be released from you, and he may return to his clan and his ancestral property.^{(J) 42} They are not to be sold as slaves,^[e] because they are my servants^[f] that I brought out of the land of Egypt. ⁴³ You are not to rule over them harshly^(K) but fear your God. ⁴⁴ Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ You may also purchase them from the aliens residing with you, or from their families living among you—those born in your land. These may become your property. ⁴⁶ You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.

⁴⁷ “If an alien or temporary resident living among you prospers, but your brother living near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the alien living among you, or to a member of the resident alien’s clan, ⁴⁸ he has the right of redemption after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. ⁴⁹ His uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him. If he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ The one who purchased him is to calculate the time from the year he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years. It will be set for him like the daily wages of a hired worker. ⁵¹ If many years are still left, he must pay his redemption price in proportion to them based on his purchase price. ⁵² If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he will calculate and pay the price of his redemption in proportion to his remaining years. ⁵³ He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A resident alien is not to rule over him harshly in your sight. ⁵⁴ If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released at the Year of Jubilee. ⁵⁵ For the Israelites are my servants.^(L) They are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

Psalm 32

The Joy of Forgiveness

Of David. A Maskil.

Wisdom, Authorities, and Inequities

8 Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.^(A)

² Keep^[a] the king’s command because of your oath made before God.^{(B) 3} Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence,^(C) and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants. ⁴ For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” ^{(D) 5} The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful,^(E) and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. ⁶ For every activity there is a right time and procedure,^(F) even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him. ⁷ Yet no one knows what will happen^(G) because who can tell him what will happen? ⁸ No one has authority over the wind^[b] to restrain it,^(H) and there is no authority over the day of death;^(I) no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. ⁹ All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one person has authority over another to his harm.

¹⁰ In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place,^(J) and they were praised^[c] in the city where they did those things. This too is futile. ¹¹ Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly,^(K) the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil. ¹² Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life,^(L) I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people,^(M) for they are reverent before him. ¹³ However, it will not go well with the wicked,^(N) and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow,^(O) for they are not reverent before God.

¹⁴ There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve,^(P) and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve.^(Q) I say that this too is futile. ¹⁵ So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself,^(R) for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom^(S) and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night), ¹⁷ I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it;^(T) even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.

Fulfill Your Ministry

4 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge^(A) the living and the dead,^(B) and because of his appearing and his kingdom:^{(C) 2} Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. ³ For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine,^(D) but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. ⁴ They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.^{(E) 5} But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist,^(F) fulfill your ministry.

⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering,^(G) and the time for my departure is close. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ There is reserved for me the crown^(H) of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,^(I) will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.^[a](J)

Final Instructions

⁹ Make every effort to come to me soon,^{(K) 10} because Demas^(L) has deserted me,^(M) since he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica.^(N) Crescens has gone to Galatia,^(O) Titus^(P) to Dalmatia. ¹¹ Only Luke^(Q) is with me. Bring Mark^(R) with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry. ¹² I have sent Tychicus^(S) to Ephesus. ¹³ When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas^(T) with Carpus, as well as the scrolls, especially the parchments. ¹⁴ Alexander^(U) the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works. ¹⁵ Watch out^(V) for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.

¹⁶ At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me.^(W) May it not be counted against them. ¹⁷ But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.^(X) To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

Benediction

¹⁹ Greet Prisca and Aquila,^(Y) and the household of Onesiphorus.^{(Z) 20} Erastus^(AA) has remained at Corinth; I left Trophimus^(AB) sick at Miletus.^{(AC) 21} Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.

²² The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.