Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Director: Upon machalath.^[a] A Davidic instruction.^[b]

The Fool and God’s Response

Sabbatical Years

25 The Lord told Moses on Mount Sinai, ² “Tell the Israelis that when you enter the land that I’m about to give you, you are to let the land observe a Sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years you may plant your fields, and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce. ⁴ But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of rest for the land—a Sabbath for the Lord. You are not to plant your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You are not to gather what grows from the spilled kernels of your crops. You are not to pick the grapes of your untrimmed vines. Let it be a year of Sabbath for the land. ⁶ You may take the Sabbath produce^[a] of the land for your food—you, your male and maid servants, your hired laborers, and the resident alien with you. ⁷ The cattle and the wild animals in your land—everything it produces—are for your food.

⁸ “Count for yourselves seven years of Sabbaths—seven times seven years. This set of seven weeks of years total 49 years for you. ⁹ Sound a horn on the tenth day of the seventh month of this fiftieth year.^[b] Likewise, on the Day of Atonement, sound the horn throughout your land. ¹⁰ Set aside and consecrate the fiftieth year to declare liberty throughout the land for all of its inhabitants. It is to be a jubilee for you. Every person^[c] is to return to his own land that he has inherited. Likewise, every person is to return to his tribe. ¹¹ The fiftieth year is to be a year of jubilee for you. You are not to sow or harvest the spilled kernels that grow of themselves or pick grapes from the untrimmed vines ¹² because it’s the jubilee—it’s sacred for you. But you may eat its produce from the field.

¹³ “During this year of jubilee, each person is to return to his own land that he has inherited. ¹⁴ So if you had sold property^[d] to a neighbor or had acquired land from your neighbor, you are not to cheat one another. ¹⁵ According to the number of years after the jubilee, you may buy from your neighbor. And according to the number of years with crops, he may sell to you. ¹⁶ If the number of years after the jubilee^[e] is more, increase the selling price. If the number of years after the jubilee^[f] is few, decrease its selling price, because he’s selling to you according to the potential production volume^[g] of the land.^{[h] 17} No one is to cheat his neighbor. Instead, you are to fear your God, because I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ “Observe my statutes and keep my ordinances. Do them so that you may live securely in the land. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield its fruit and you’ll eat to your satisfaction and live securely.

⁹ Then the angel^[a] told me, “Write this: ‘How blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb!’” He also told me, “These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰ I bowed down at his feet to worship him, but he told me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who rely on what Jesus is saying. Worship God, because what Jesus is saying is the spirit of prophecy!”