24.16 Aliens, thereby including the blasphemer of vv. 10–11, the son of a non-Israelite father.
24.18 Life for life perhaps originally began the talion formula of v. 20.
24.21 A repetition of vv. 17–18 for the sake of an envelope structure.
LEVITICUS 25
The Sabbatical Year
1The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the LORD. 3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4but 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. 5You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; 7for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
The Year of Jubilee
8You shall count off seven weeksa of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. 9Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. 10And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. 11That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. 12For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
13In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. 15When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. 16If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
18You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. 19The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. 20Should you ask, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?” 21I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years. 22When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old. 23The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. 24Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.
25If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold. 26If the person has no one to redeem it, but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so, 27the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference shall be refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned. 28But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.
29If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year. 30If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. 32As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them. 33Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites—houses sold in a city belonging to them—shall be released in the jubilee; because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34But the open land around their cities may not be sold; for that is their possession for all time.
35If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you,b you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. 36Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. 37You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit. 38I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
39If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. 40They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property. 42For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. 43You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God. 44As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. 45You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. 46You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
47If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family, 48after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, 49or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves. 50They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer. 51If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price; 52and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. 53As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. 54And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year. 55For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
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a Or sabbaths
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
25.1–55 Each seventh year is a sabbath of liberating respite for Hebrew slaves (Ex 21.2–6; Deut 15.12–18) and the land (Ex 23.10–11). In H (see Introduction), this “full” sabbatical is reserved for the jubilee, whereas the seventh-year sabbatical applies only to the land. These two laws are not in conflict. Exodus refers to members of a landless class who voluntarily sell themselves into slavery. Lev 25 deals with impoverished landed Israelites who are free to sell themselves as slaves but who may not be treated as slaves and who return to their land at the jubilee or when they are redeemed (vv. 39–42). Deuteronomy extends the sabbatical release to debtors (Deut 15.1–11).
25.1 Mount Sinai forms an in
clusio with 26.46, indicating that originally chs. 25–26 formed a separate scroll.
25.2 The land…sabbath. All who reside on it, including aliens, must observe it.
25.3–5, 11 Sow…reap, proof that the sabbatical and jubilee years begin in the fall.
25.6 This verse alters Ex 23.11 by denying the sabbatical aftergrowth to the poor and endowing it to the owner and his household. H (see Introduction) makes other, ongoing provisions for the poor (19.9–10; 23.20).
25.10 Liberty. Hebrew deror is related to Akkadian duraru, which could also entail the emancipation of indentured slaves, the return of confiscated land, and the cancellation of debts. However, it was episodic, occasionally proclaimed upon the ascension of the Mesopotamian king to the throne. Also its purpose was strictly economic, to relieve the plight of the poor, whereas in Israel its goal was social as well, to preserve the clan structure by restoring its landholdings. For you, not for the land or for the release of alien slaves (vv. 45–46). Note that the term “sabbath” is absent in the jubilee provisions.
25.15 Pay, i.e., deduct.
25.20–22 The sixth to ninth years, mentioned here, are reckoned by the spring calendar. Hence the sabbatical and succeeding jubilee years, which follow the fall calendar, must begin in the fall of the sixth and seventh years and terminate in the spring of the seventh and eighth years, respectively. Thus, what is sown in the eighth year will be reaped in the ninth, and the harvest of the sixth year must therefore last three years.
25.23 In perpetuity, Hebrew tsemitut, related to the Akkadian verb tsamatu, “financially hand over (real estate)” i.e., neither the seller nor his heirs may ever revoke the sale.
25.25–55 Four cases of worsening impoverishment: selling part of the land, depending upon an Israelite (probably a kinsman) for support, selling oneself as a resident laborer to an Israelite (probably a kinsman), and selling oneself as a slave to a resident alien.
25.25 Since the purpose of the jubilee is to preserve the clan holdings, the redeemer (a close kinsman) probably keeps the land until the jubilee (as shown by v. 33 below) as compensation for his purchase.
25.29–34 Unwalled (Canaanite) cities, not having been allocated to the tribal clans, are not subject to the jubilee. Redemption and jubilee, however, apply to the allocated cities of the Levites.
25.33 The first half of this verse reads better as “Whoever of the Levites redeems the house, which was sold in the city of his possession [so Septuagint], must be released in the jubilee.”
25.36 Otherwise make a profit, rather “accrued interest.”
25.37 A profit, or “accrued interest.”
25.39–43 If the debtor still cannot repay his loan and otherwise cannot support himself and his family, he and they enter the household of the creditor. He no longer enjoys the usufruct of his forfeited land. Nonetheless, his status is not that of a slave but that of a resident hireling; he receives wages, all of which pay off his debt and status.
25.40 Or bound, rather “resident.”
25.42 My servants, not yours. The heart of this chapter; cf. also v. 55.
LEVITICUS 26
Rewards for Obedience
1You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them; for I am the LORD your God. 2You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, 4I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land. 6And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land. 7You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. 10You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. 11I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. 12And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Penalties for Disobedience
14But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, 16I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. 18And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. 20Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21If you continue hostile to me, and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. 22I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.
23If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me, but continue hostile to me, 24then I too will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. 26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight; and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.
27But if, despite this, you disobey me, and continue hostile to me, 28I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. 29You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you. 31I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors. 32I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste.
34Then the land shall enjoya its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoya its sabbath years. 35As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it. 36And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues. 37They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies. 38You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. 39And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; also they shall languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.
40But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me—41so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought
them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43For the land shall be deserted by them, and enjoya its sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes. 44Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God; 45but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the LORD.
46These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the LORD established between himself and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses.
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a Or make up for
a Or make up for
a Or make up for
26.1–46 The threat of total destruction and exile appears in three other books of the Bible: Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (whose eschatology is largely based on Lev 26). These books also share with this chapter a view that cultic transgressions alone, as here defined, cause the nation’s collapse; idolatry (26.1) and the neglect of the sabbatical system (26.2, 34–35) are specified here. Since the events in chs. 25–26 are attributed to Israel’s sojourn at Mount Sinai (25.1; 26.46), these may well constitute the text of the Sinaitic covenant according to the Holiness source.
26.1 Carved images even of Israel’s God (Ex 20.4, 23). Pillars. This prohibition was originally restricted to worship of foreign gods (Ex 23.24), but beginning with Hezekiah and Josiah, kings of the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, respectively, it was extended to include Israel’s God (Deut 16.22). At, rather “on.” For similar language, see Gen 47.31.
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