Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



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.

As in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke of his burdens: the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

In that day your burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.

In my land of Israel I will trample them on my mountains. I will free my people from the Assyrian yoke and from the burdens they have had to bear.

Jehovah spoke his word to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem promised to free their slaves.




Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: Jehovah, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up!

Everyone was supposed to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female. No one was supposed to keep another Jew as a slave.

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.

May your God be with you and let you go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah. There you are to build the house of Jehovah the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem.


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.


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.

In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property.

In the jubilee year the field will go back to the person from whom it was bought, to whom it belongs as family property.


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.

Count seven times seven years (seven sabbaths of years), a total of forty-nine years.


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.



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.


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.

As in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke of his burdens: the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

In that day your burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.

In my land of Israel I will trample them on my mountains. I will free my people from the Assyrian yoke and from the burdens they have had to bear.

Jehovah spoke his word to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem promised to free their slaves.



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.

Jehovah spoke his word to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem promised to free their slaves.

You changed and did what I consider right. You agreed to free your neighbors, and you made a covenant in my presence, in the Temple that is called by my name. Now you have changed again and dishonored me. You brought back the male and females slaves that you had set free to live their own lives. You have forced them to be your male and female slaves again.' This is what Jehovah says: 'You did not obey me. You have not freed your relatives and neighbors. Now I am going to free you,' declares Jehovah. 'I will free you to die in wars, plagues, and famines. I will make all the kingdoms of the world horrified at the thought of you.


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. 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. read more.
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.

It is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the freewoman. How is it that the son by the slave woman is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise? This contains an allegory (symbolic drama). These women symbolize two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. read more.
Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is. She is in bondage with her children. The Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother.

Brothers, we are not children of a slave woman but of the free woman.




You may work for six days. The seventh day is a holy day of worship (a Sabbath). It is a day when you do not work. It is dedicated to Jehovah. Whoever does any work on this day should be put to death.

Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it (keep it holy), as Jehovah your God has commanded you. Do all your work in six days. The seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God: in it you should not do any work. Your son and daughter should not work. Your manservant and maidservant should not work. Your ox, donkey, cattle or any stranger living with you should not work. Your manservant and maidservant should rest as much as you do.

On the seventh day you must have a holy assembly. You must not do any regular work. During the Festival of Weeks, you must have a holy assembly. On that day you must not do any regular work. Bring Jehovah your new grain offering, the first produce harvested from your fields.

You have six days to do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath dedicated to Jehovah your God. Do not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them in six days. He rested on the seventh day. Therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Speak to the people of Israel. Say: 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This is a sign between you and me throughout your generations that you may know that I am Jehovah, the one who sanctifies you. You are to observe the Sabbath. It is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it will absolutely be put to death. Whoever does any work on it will be removed from his people. Work may be done for six days. The seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest. It is holy to Jehovah. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day will definitely be put to death. read more.
The Israelites must observe the Sabbath and celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a long lasting covenant. It is a long lasting sign between the people of Israel and me for the reason that Jehovah made heaven and earth in six days. Then He ceased from work and was refreshed on the seventh day.'

You may work six days. On the seventh day you must not work. Even during the time of plowing or harvesting you must not work on this day. Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the first grain from your wheat harvest. Celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the season.

You may work for six days. But the seventh day is a day of worship (Sabbath), a day when you do not work, and a holy assembly. Do not do any work. It is Jehovah's day of worship wherever you live. The following are Jehovah's appointed festivals with holy assemblies. You must announce these at their appointed times. The Passover, celebrated to honor Jehovah, begins at sunset on the fourteenth day of the first month. read more.
The fifteenth day of the same month the Festival of Unleavened Bread begins. You must not eat any bread made with yeast for seven days. Gather to worship on the first of these days. Do none of your daily work. Bring a sacrifice to Jehovah for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a holy assembly. Do not do any regular work.'

Observe a special day of rest on the first day of the seventh month. Gather together for worship when the trumpets sound. Present a food offering to Jehovah. Do not do your daily work. Jehovah spoke to Moses: read more.
The tenth day of this seventh month is a special day for the payment for sins. There will be a holy assembly. Humble yourselves, and bring Jehovah a sacrifice by fire. Do not do any work that day. It is a special day for the payment for sins. It is a time when you pay compensation for wrongdoing and make peace with Jehovah your God. Those who do not humble themselves on that day will be excluded from the people. I will destroy those who do any work on that day. Do not do any work! It is a long lasting law for generations to come wherever you live. It is a day of worship (sabbath), a day when you do not work. Humble yourselves starting on the evening of the ninth day of the month. From that evening to the next, observe the day of worship. Jehovah spoke to Moses: Inform the Israelites: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Booths to Jehovah. It will last seven days. There will be a holy assemble on the first day. Do not do any regular work. Bring a sacrifice by fire to Jehovah for seven consecutive days. On the eighth day there will be a holy assembly. Bring Jehovah a sacrifice by fire. This is the last festival of the year. Do not do any regular work. These are Jehovah's appointed festivals. Announce them as holy assemblies for bringing sacrifices by fire to Jehovah. Bring burnt offerings, grain offerings, other sacrifices, and wine offerings-each one on its special day. This is in addition to Jehovah's days of worship, your gifts, all your vows, and your freewill offerings to Jehovah. Celebrate Jehovah's festival for seven days. This should begin on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; at the time you gather what the land produces. The first and the eighth days will be worship festivals. Take the best fruits, palm branches, the branches of leafy trees and poplars on the first day, and celebrate in the presence of Jehovah your God for seven days. It is Jehovah's festival. Celebrate it for seven days each year. This is a long lasting law for generations to come. Celebrate this festival in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days. Everyone born in Israel must live in booths.

Give the following regulations to the people of Israel: 'When you enter the land that Jehovah is giving you, honor Jehovah by not cultivating the land every seventh year. Plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. But the seventh year is to be a sabbath year of complete rest for the land. It is a year dedicated to Jehovah. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. read more.
Do not even harvest the grain that grows by itself without being planted. Do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It is a year of complete rest for the land. 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, your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten. 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. 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.

The Israelites should celebrate the Passover at the same time every year. You must celebrate it on the fourteenth day of this month at dusk. Follow all the rules and regulations for the celebration of the Passover.

Jehovah's Passover is the fourteenth day of the first month. The feast of unleavened bread in the fifteenth of this same month. For seven days you must eat only unleavened bread. There will be a holy assembly on the first day. Do not do any regular work.


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.


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.

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.

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.

As in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke of his burdens: the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

In that day your burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.

In my land of Israel I will trample them on my mountains. I will free my people from the Assyrian yoke and from the burdens they have had to bear.

Jehovah spoke his word to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem promised to free their slaves.



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.

Suppose the prince offers a gift from his property to one of his servants. The gift will belong to the servant only until the year of freedom. Then the gift will go back to the prince. Only his sons can inherit his 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.

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 you give your field in the jubilee year, it will have its full value.