Leviticus 25:1-55
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Summary
- Rest for the land every 7th year; freedom for people and land every 50th year.
- The emphasis is to be on rest, sharing, and freedom - a time of joy.
Details and/or Comments
- Every 7th year - no planting, no harvest. Share what God provides.
- Every 50th year - same as above; but also freedom for slaves, land returns to its original owners.
- God will provide during the times that there is no planting/harvest.
- Do not take advantage of poor people.
- Ultimately, the land belongs to God - you are foreigners. You are also God's servants/slaves.
Scripture
Leviticus 25:1-55 – Care for the land and for people.
- See: Sabbath Rest, Fourth Commandment, Treatment of Land and Sharing.
Rest for the land every 7th year.
Freedom for people and land every 50th year.
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Lev 25:1 Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai,
Lev 25:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. |
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| Lev 25:3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
Lev 25:4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. Lev 25:5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. Lev 25:6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. Lev 25:7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food. |
SABBATH REST - Let the land rest every 7th year.
The phrase "solemn rest" refers to its complete nature. It was to influence the land, the people, and everything. It was also to demonstrate the providential power of God to protect and provide, and gave the people an opportunity to trust him to do it. Do not harvest the food... just share it. Whatever food grows on its own shall be made available for all - you, friends, foreigners, animals. |
| Lev 25:8 " 'You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
Lev 25:9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. |
The 50th year – a year of freedom and sharing. |
| Lev 25:10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. | JUBILEE - Freedom to the inhabitants and to their family property. |
| Lev 25:11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
Lev 25:12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field. |
Do not harvest the food... just share it. |
| Lev 25:13 " 'In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
Lev 25:14 " 'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. Lev 25:15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. Lev 25:16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. Lev 25:17 You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God. |
Everyone's property is to be returned. You do not “buy” land from someone else; you are only buying or selling the crops that will be grown on it. |
| Lev 25:18 " 'Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
Lev 25:19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. Lev 25:20 If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;" Lev 25:21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. Lev 25:22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store. |
If you obey God in this matter (not planting/harvesting), he will bless you with an abundance of food, and with safety. |
| Lev 25:23 " 'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. | GOD (not you) owns the land. |
| Lev 25:24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
Lev 25:25 " 'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. Lev 25:26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it; Lev 25:27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. Lev 25:28 But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property. |
If a poor person has to sell some of his land...
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| Lev 25:29 " 'If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
Lev 25:30 If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. |
Houses in a walled city – redeemable for one year; then it becomes the permanent property of the buyer. |
| Lev 25:31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. | Village homes (no walls that separate them from the fields) – They are treated as part of the land. |
| Lev 25:32 " 'Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
Lev 25:33 The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. Lev 25:34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. |
(Special situation for the Levites.) |
| Lev 25:35 " 'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support him among you; then you shall uphold him. As a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you.
Lev 25:36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you. Lev 25:37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. Lev 25:38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. |
A poor member of the community: Help him. Do not profit from his misfortune! (This includes giving him your food for profit and charging interest in borrowed money.) |
| Lev 25:39 " 'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
Lev 25:40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee: Lev 25:41 then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. Lev 25:42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. Lev 25:43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God. |
A poor member of the community: If he sells himself to you, treat him as a hired servant, not as a slave. He is to be released in the year of Jubilee. |
| Lev 25:44 " 'As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
Lev 25:45 Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. Lev 25:46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness. |
(It is different for foreigners.) |
| Lev 25:47 " 'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family;
Lev 25:48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; Lev 25:49 or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. Lev 25:50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him. Lev 25:51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. Lev 25:52 If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. Lev 25:53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. Lev 25:54 If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him. Lev 25:55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. |
You can be a slave to a foreigner, but can be redeemed, or else released in the year of the Jubilee.
Why? Because ultimately, the Israelites are God's servants/slaves. |
9:7, 24; 10:1-7 • 11:1-47 • Ch.13-14 • 18:1-30 • 19 (selected verses) • 25:1-55 • 26:1-45 |
Scripture Passages
(Only books that have relevance to this study have active links. The others are in italics.)
Genesis • Exodus • Leviticus • Numbers • Deuteronomy • Joshua • Judges • Ruth • 1 Samuel • 2 Samuel • 1 Kings • 2 Kings • 1 Chronicles • 2 Chronicles • Ezra • Nehemiah • Esther • Job • Psalms • Proverbs • Ecclesiastes • Song of Solomon • Isaiah • Jeremiah • Lamentations • Ezekiel • Daniel • Hosea • Joel • Amos • Obadiah • Jonah • Micah • Nahum • Habakkuk • Zephaniah • Haggai • Zechariah • Malachi Matthew • Mark • Luke • John • Acts • Romans • 1 Corinthians • 2 Corinthians • Galatians • Ephesians • Philippians • Colossians • 1 Thessalonians • 2 Thessalonians • 1 Timothy • 2 Timothy • Titus • Philemon • Hebrews • James • 1 Peter • 2 Peter • 1 John • 2 John • 3 John • Jude • Revelation |
—— To avoid any copyright issues, all Scripture is either from a public domain translation (such as the World English Bible), my own translation, or a combination of these. ——
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The name "Yahweh," when present in an Old Testament passage, represents the Hebrew name for the God of the Bible.
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Unless otherwise noted, all notes and comments are © by Dennis Hinks.
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