Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



If someone takes you to court to sue you and takes your shirt, let him have your coat as well.

If the peoples of the lands come to do trade in goods or food on the Sabbath day, that we would do no trade with them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. In the seventh year we would take no payment from any debtor.

He was not able to make payment. So his lord gave orders for him to be sold. His wife, sons, and daughters were all to be sold along with every possession. The money would be used for payment of what he owed.

Come to an agreement quickly with the one who has a legal case against you. Do it before he turns the case over to the judge and you are thrown into jail. Take it from me; you will stay in jail until you pay the very last penny of your fine.

When you buy a Hebrew slave he will be your slave for six years. In the seventh year he may leave as a free man without paying for his freedom. If he was single at the time you bought him he alone must be set free. If he was married at that time, both he and his wife must be given their freedom. If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master. He shall go out alone. read more.
What if the slave loves his wife and children so much that he will not leave without them? He must stand beside either the door or the doorpost at the place of worship. His owner will punch a small hole through one of his ears with a sharp metal rod. This makes him a slave for life.

In the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you. read more.
You must not wrong one another. You shall respect your God. I am Jehovah your God.

Someone gives his neighbor a donkey, a bull, a sheep, or any other kind of animal to keep for him, and it dies, is injured, or is captured in war, and there are no witnesses. The case between them must be settled by swearing an oath to Jehovah that the neighbor did not take the other person's animal. The owner must accept the oath. The neighbor does not have to make up for the loss. However, if the animal was stolen from the neighbor, he must make up for the owner's loss. read more.
If a wild animal killed the neighbor's animal he must bring in the dead body of the wild animal as evidence. He does not have to make up for an animal that has been killed. Whenever someone borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, the borrower must make up for the loss. If the owner is with the animal, the borrower does not have to make up for the loss. If it is rented, the rental fee covers the loss.

If any of you Israelites become so poor that you are forced to sell your property, your closest relative must buy it back. If that relative has the money. Later, if you can afford to buy it, you must pay enough to make up for what the present owner will lose on it before the next Year of Celebration, when the property would become yours again. read more.
If he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again. If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. Houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee. The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released. This is because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their property from generation to generation. If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, you should help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. Do not collect interest or make any profit from him. Respect your God by respecting other Israelites' lives. Do not collect any interest on your money or on the food you give them. I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your God. If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave. He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors.

Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. read more.
Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly. If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee. The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'


Count seven times seven years (seven sabbaths of years), a total of forty-nine years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land. In this way you will set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold must be restored to the original owner or the descendants, and any who have been sold as slaves may return to their families. read more.
That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Do not plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land. The jubilee year will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces. In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property. In the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you. You must not wrong one another. You shall respect your God. I am Jehovah your God. You must observe my statutes and keep my judgments, so as to carry them out. That way you may live securely on the land. The land will give you its products. You will eat all you want and live there securely. You may ask: What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or bring in our crops?' I will give you my blessing in the sixth year so that the land will produce enough for three years. You will plant again in the eighth year but live on what the land already produced. You will eat it, even in the ninth year, until the land produces more. No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me! It is not your land! You only live there for a little while. When property is sold, the original owner must be given the first chance to buy it. If any of you Israelites become so poor that you are forced to sell your property, your closest relative must buy it back. If that relative has the money. Later, if you can afford to buy it, you must pay enough to make up for what the present owner will lose on it before the next Year of Celebration, when the property would become yours again. If he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again. If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. Houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee. The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released. This is because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their property from generation to generation. If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, you should help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. Do not collect interest or make any profit from him. Respect your God by respecting other Israelites' lives. Do not collect any interest on your money or on the food you give them. I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your God. If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave. He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors. They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves. Do not treat them harshly. Respect your God. You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property. You may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly. Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly. If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee. The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'

If you give your field in the jubilee year, it will have its full value. Should you give the field after the jubilee year, the priest will estimate its value based on the number of years left until the next jubilee year. If you want to buy it back, you must pay its full value plus one-fifth more. read more.
If you do not buy it back and it is sold to someone else, it may not be redeemed. When the field is released in the jubilee year, it will be holy like a field claimed by Jehovah. It will become the property of the priest. You may give a field you bought, not one that was a part of your family property, to Jehovah as something holy. The priest must figure out the field's value until the jubilee year. You will pay its value on that day as something holy, belonging to Jehovah. In the jubilee year the field will go back to the person from whom it was bought, to whom it belongs as family property.

During the Year of Restoration, when all property that has been sold is restored to its original owners, the property of Zelophehad's daughters will be permanently added to the tribe into which they marry and will be lost to our tribe.


Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. read more.
Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly. If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee.


In this way you will set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold must be restored to the original owner or the descendants, and any who have been sold as slaves may return to their families.

If a man is caught kidnapping any of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, the thief shall die. You will purge the evil from among you.

If a man has sexual intercourse with a female slave who is engaged to another man and if her freedom was never bought or given to her, they should not be put to death. He will only pay a fine because she is a slave. He must bring a ram for his guilt offering to Jehovah at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. In Jehovah's presence the priest will use them to pay compensation for the wrongdoing and make peace with Jehovah for this sin. The man will be forgiven for this sin.

If you buy Israelites (your own brothers) as slaves, you must set them free after six years.

It should not seem hard to you when you set him free. After all he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man. Jehovah your God will bless you in whatever you do.

These are the ordinances you should set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave he will be your slave for six years. In the seventh year he may leave as a free man without paying for his freedom. If he was single at the time you bought him he alone must be set free. If he was married at that time, both he and his wife must be given their freedom. read more.
If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master. He shall go out alone. What if the slave loves his wife and children so much that he will not leave without them? He must stand beside either the door or the doorpost at the place of worship. His owner will punch a small hole through one of his ears with a sharp metal rod. This makes him a slave for life. When a man sells his daughter into slavery, she will not go free the way male slaves do. If she does not please the master who has chosen her as a wife, he must let her be bought back by one of her close relatives. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, since he has treated her unfairly. If a man buys a female slave to give to his son, he should treat her like a daughter. If a man takes a second wife, he must continue to give his first wife the same amount of food and clothing and the same rights that she had before. If he fails to do any of these things, she should be given her freedom without cost.

If a slave owner takes a stick and beats his slave, whether male or female, and the slave dies on the spot, the owner is to be punished. If the slave lives a few days after the beating, you are not to be punished. After all, you have already lost the services of that slave who was your property.

If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free because of his eye. If he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free because of his tooth.

If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Even though the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you,

If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, you should help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. Do not collect interest or make any profit from him. Respect your God by respecting other Israelites' lives. Do not collect any interest on your money or on the food you give them. read more.
I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your God. If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave. He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors. They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves. Do not treat them harshly. Respect your God. You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property. You may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly. Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly. If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee. The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'

Supply him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat. Give to him as Jehovah your God has blessed you.


Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family.

If he says to you: I will not leave you. If it is because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you, then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door. He will be your servant for a very long time. You should do likewise to your maidservant.

Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying: 'Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them: We are your servants. Therefore make a treaty with us.' We took hot fresh bread for our provision out of our houses on the day we came to you. Now it is dry, and it is moldy: These bottles of wine, which we filled, were new and now they are cracked. Our garments and shoes have become old by reason of the very long journey. read more.
The men sampled their provisions but did not ask for counsel from Jehovah. Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live. The leaders of the congregation ratified it by an oath. At the end of three days after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them. The children of Israel journeyed to their cities on the third day. Their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. The children of Israel did not kill them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by Jehovah God of Israel. The entire congregation murmured against the princes. But all the leaders said to the entire congregation: We have sworn to them by Jehovah the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them. We will even let them live in case we become angry. This is because of the oath we swore to them. The leaders said to them: Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water to the entire congregation as the leaders had promised them.


Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family.

He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly.


Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. read more.
Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly. If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee. The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'


Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother.