Thematic Bible: Feast of sabbatical year


Thematic Bible



Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you [shall be] in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest [for the time] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it.

And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves must pay for their guilt, {simply because} they rejected my regulations, and their inner self abhorred my statutes.


And the peoples of the land who bring merchandise and any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not accept it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. We will forego [the crops of] the seventh year and [cancel] every debt.

"At the end of seven years you shall grant remission of debt. And this [is] the manner of the remission of debt: every {creditor} shall remit his claim that he holds against his neighbor, and he shall not exact payment [from] his brother because there remission of debt has been proclaimed unto Yahweh. [With respect to] the foreigner you may exact payment, but {you must remit} what shall be [owed] to you [with respect to] your brother.



If your relative who is a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you, and [he or she] has served you six years, then in the seventh year you shall send that person [out] {free}.


But the seventh you will let it rest and leave it fallow, and the poor of your people will eat, and their remainder the animals of the field will eat. You will do likewise for your vineyard and for your olive trees.

And a Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you: for you and for your slave and for your slave woman and for your hired worker and for your temporary residents who are dwelling as aliens with you; and all its yield shall be for your domestic animal and for the wild animal, which [are] in your land to eat.


But the seventh you will let it rest and leave it fallow, and the poor of your people will eat, and their remainder the animals of the field will eat. You will do likewise for your vineyard and for your olive trees.

But in the seventh year it shall be {a Sabbath of complete rest} for the land--a Sabbath for Yahweh; you must not sow your field, and you must not prune your vineyard.


And he took {those who escaped the sword} to Babylon. And they became servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.


Then Moses commanded them, {saying}, "At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths, {when all Israel comes to appear before} Yahweh their God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel {in their hearing}. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your {towns}, so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and {they shall diligently observe} all the words of this law. read more.
And [then] their children, who have not known, they [too] may hear, and they may learn to revere Yahweh their God all the days {that you live} on the land that you [are] crossing the Jordan {to get there} to take possession of it."


{Take care} so that there will not be {a thought of wickedness} in your heart, {saying}, 'The seventh year, the year of the remission of debt is near,' {and you view your needy neighbor with hostility}, and [so] you [do] not give to him, and he might cry [out] against you to Yahweh, and {you would incur guilt against yourself}. By all means you must give to him, and {you must not be discontented} at your giving to him, because on account of this [very] thing, Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and {in all that you undertake}. For the poor will not cease to be {among you} [in] the land; therefore I [am] commanding you, {saying}, 'You shall willingly open your hand to your brother, to your needy and to your poor [that are] in your land.'


And if you should say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, {if} we do not sow and we do not gather its yield?" then I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will make the yield for three years. And you will sow [in] the eighth year, and you shall eat from the old yield; until the ninth year, until the coming of its yield, you shall eat [the] old [yield].


[With respect to] the foreigner you may exact payment, but {you must remit} what shall be [owed] to you [with respect to] your brother.


But in the seventh year it shall be {a Sabbath of complete rest} for the land--a Sabbath for Yahweh; you must not sow your field, and you must not prune your vineyard. You must not reap your harvest's aftergrowth, and you must not harvest the grapes of your unpruned vines--it shall be {a year of complete rest} for the land.


"Speak to the {Israelites}, and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I [am about to] give to you, then the land shall observe a Sabbath for Yahweh.


And the peoples of the land who bring merchandise and any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not accept it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. We will forego [the crops of] the seventh year and [cancel] every debt.