the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Leviticus 25
The Seventh Year—a Year of Rest for the Lord
1 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2 "Say to the people of Israel, ‘When you come to the land I will give you, then the land will have a Year of Rest to the Lord. 3 Six years you will plant seeds in your field. Six years you will take care of your vines and gather their fruit. 4 But the seventh year will be a Year of Rest for the land, a Year of Rest to the Lord. You will not plant seeds in your field or take care of your vines. 5 You will not gather what grows of itself in your field. And do not gather the fruit of the vines that have not been cared for. The land will have a Year of Rest. 6 During the Year of Rest the land will give food for you, for your men and women servants, the man you pay to work for you, and the stranger who lives with you. 7 Even your cattle and the animals in your land will have food to eat.
The Fiftieth Year
8 ‘You are to number seven Years of Rest for yourself, seven times seven years. The time of the seven Years of Rest will be forty-nine years. 9 Then let the horn be heard on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day to be made free from sin you will let a horn be heard all through your land. 10 You will honor the fiftieth year as holy. And let it be known in all the land that all who are living there are free. It will be a happy time for you. Each of you will return to what is his. Each will return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be a happy time for you. You will not plant seeds in the field, or gather the food that grows of itself, or gather fruit from the vines that are not cared for. 12 This is a happy time. It will be holy to you. You will eat from what the field gives.
13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee each one will have what was his. 14 If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, do not do wrong to one another. 15 You will pay your neighbor by the number of years since the Year of Jubilee. And he will sell to you by the number of years the food may be gathered. 16 You will make the price more if there are many years, and make the price less if there are few years. For he is selling you the food that is gathered each year. 17 Do not do wrong to one another, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.
The Seventh Year
18 ‘So keep My Laws and do what I say, and you will be safe living in the land. 19 Then the land will give its food, so you can eat all you want and be safe living there. 20 If you say, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant seeds or gather in the food of our field?" 21 I will let My good come upon you in the sixth year, so it will give you enough food for three years. 22 When you are planting seeds in the eighth year, you can still eat from the old store of food. You can eat the old food until the food of the ninth year is gathered.
23 ‘The land will not be sold to be kept forever. For the land is Mine. You are only strangers staying with Me. 24 For all the land you have, you must be willing to let it go. 25 When your brother becomes poor and sells some of his land, then one in his family who is near to him is to come and buy what his brother has sold. 26 But a man may have no one to buy his land, and he himself may become able to buy it again. 27 Then he should add up the years since he sold it, and pay what is left of the price to the man to whom he sold it. So he will return to his own land. 28 But if he is not able to buy it again for himself, then what he has sold will belong to the one who bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Year of Jubilee it will be let go and he may return to it.
29 ‘If a man sells a house within the walls of a city, he has the right to buy it back for a whole year from the time he sold it. He can buy it during that year. 30 But if it is not bought back again for him within a whole year, then the house within the city walls belongs forever to the family of the one who bought it. It will not be returned to him in the Year of Jubilee. 31 But houses in towns that have no walls will be thought of as open fields. They may be let go, and will be returned in the Year of Jubilee. 32 The houses in the cities of the Levites may be returned to the Levites at any time. 33 If a house is not bought again by a Levite, then the house that was sold in one of their cities will be returned to him in the Year of Jubilee. For the houses of the Levites belong to them among the people of Israel. 34 But the open field of their cities must not be sold. It belongs to them forever.
The Poor Paying Money Back
35 ‘If your brother becomes poor and is not able to pay you what he owes, then you should help him as you would help a stranger or visitor. So he may live with you. 36 Do not make him pay for the use of the money he owes you. But fear your God, so your brother may live with you. 37 Do not make him pay for the use of your money or your food. 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.
About Servants and Workmen
39 ‘If your brother becomes so poor that he sells himself to you, do not make him work as a servant. 40 He will be as a man who is paid to work for you, as one who is traveling from place to place, until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then he will leave you, he and his children, that he may return to the land of his fathers. 42 For I brought them out of the land of Egypt as My servants. They are not to be sold as a servant. 43 Do not make it hard for him, but fear your God. 44 Those men and women you may have who are sold as servants will be from the nations around you. 45 You may buy from among the children of the strangers who live among you, and from their families that are with you and were born in your land. You may own them. 46 You may give them to your children after you, to receive as their own. You can have them as servants forever. But do not make it hard for your brothers, the people of Israel.
47 ‘Now a stranger or one visiting you may become rich. And your brother may become so poor that he sells himself to a stranger living among you, or to the children of a stranger's family. 48 Then he may be made free after he has been sold. One of his brothers may pay the price to free him. 49 His father's brother, the son of his father's brother, or one of his own family may pay the price to free him. Or if he becomes rich he may pay the price himself. 50 With the one who bought him he will add the years from the year he sold himself until the Year of Jubilee. The price for him to be set free will be decided upon by the number of years. The time he was with the man who owned him will be as that of a man paid to work for him. 51 If there are still many years, he will return a part of the price which was given for him. 52 If there is only a few years until the Year of Jubilee, he will decide upon the amount of money with his owner. He should pay the price to be set free, decided upon by the number of years. 53 He will be like a man paid to work for him year by year. Make sure his owner does not make it hard for him. 54 Even if the price is not paid for him in this way, he will go free in the Year of Jubilee, he and his children. 55 Because the people of Israel are My servants. They are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
