Sinai & The Law

But in the seventh year is to be a Shabbat of complete rest for the land, a Shabbat for ADONAI; you will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines.

You are not to harvest what grows by itself from the seeds left by your previous harvest, and you are not to gather the grapes of your untended vine; it is to be a year of complete rest for the land.

But what the land produces during the year of Shabbat will be food for all of you - you, your servant, your maid, your employee, anyone living near you,

your livestock and the wild animals on your land; everything the land produces may be used for food.

"'You are to count seven Shabbats of years, seven times seven years, that is, forty-nine years.

Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom-Kippur, you are to sound a blast on the shofar; you are to sound the shofar all through your land;

and you are to consecrate the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a yovel for you; you will return everyone to the land he owns, and everyone is to return to his family.

That fiftieth year will be a yovel for you; in that year you are not to sow, harvest what grows by itself or gather the grapes of untended vines;

because it is a yovel. It will be holy for you; whatever the fields produce will be food for all of you.

In this year of yovel, every one of you is to return to the land he owns.

"'If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, neither of you is to exploit the other.

Rather, you are to take into account the number of years after the yovel when you buy land from your neighbor, and he is to sell to you according to the number of years crops will be raised.

If the number of years remaining is large, you will raise the price; if few years remain, you will lower it; because what he is really selling you is the number of crops to be produced.

Thus you are not to take advantage of each other, but you are to fear your God; for I am ADONAI your God.

"'Rather, you are to keep my regulations and rulings and act accordingly. If you do, you will live securely in the land.

The land will yield its produce, you will eat until you have enough, and you will live there securely.

"'If you ask, "If we aren't allowed to sow seed or harvest what our land produces, what are we going to eat the seventh year?"

then I will order my blessing on you during the sixth year, so that the land brings forth enough produce for all three years.

The eighth year you will sow seed but eat the the old, stored produce until the ninth year; that is, until the produce of the eighth year comes in, you will eat the old, stored food.

"'The land is not to be sold in perpetuity, because the land belongs to me -you are only foreigners and temporary residents with me.

Therefore, when you sell your property, you must include the right of redemption.

That is, if one of you becomes poor and sells some of his property, his next-of-kin can come and buy back what his relative sold.

If the seller has no one to redeem it but becomes rich enough to redeem it himself,

he will calculate the number of years the land was sold for, refund the excess to its buyer, and return to his property.

If he hasn't sufficient means to get it back himself, then what he sold will remain in the hands of the buyer until the year of yovel; in the yovel the buyer will vacate it and the seller return to his property.