1. יהוה said to Moses in Mount Sinai,
2. “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to יהוה.
3. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
4. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to יהוה. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
5. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
6. The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
7. For your cattle also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food.
8. “‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
9. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
10. You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
11. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
12. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
13. “‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
14. “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
15. According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.
16. According to the length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.
17. You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am יהוה your God.
18. “‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell safely in the land.
19. The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20. If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;”
21. Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
22. You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
23. “‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
24. In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25. “‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold.
26. If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it;
27. Then let him reckon the years since the sale of it, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.
28. But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
29. “‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
30. If it isn’t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.
31. But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
32. “‘Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
33. The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35. “‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support him among you; then you shall uphold him. As a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you.
36. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.
37. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
38. I am יהוה your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39. “‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
40. As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee:
41. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers.
42. For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
43. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
44. “‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
45. Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.
46. You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
47. “‘If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family;
48. After he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him;
49. Or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.
50. He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.
51. If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52. If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption.
53. As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.
54. “‘If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him.
55. For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am יהוה your God.
Chapter 26
1. “‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am יהוה your God.
2. “‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am יהוה.
Haftarah - Jeremiah 32:6-32:27
6. Jeremiah said, יהוה’s word came to me, saying,
7. Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.
8. So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of יהוה, and said to me, Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of יהוה.
9. I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
10. I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed for him the money in the balances.
11. So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open;
12. And I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.
13. I charged Baruch before them, saying,
14. Thus says יהוה of Armies, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.
15. For thus says יהוה of Armies, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.
16. Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to יהוה, saying,
17. Ah Lord יהוה! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
18. Who show loving kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God, יהוה of Armies is his name;
19. Great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
20. Who performed great signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made you a name, as in this day;
21. And brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror;
22. And gave them this land, which you did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;
23. And they came in, and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them.
24. Behold, the mounds, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken has happened; and behold, you see it.
25. You have said to me, Lord יהוה, Buy the field for money, and call witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26. Then came the word of יהוה to Jeremiah, saying,
27. Behold, I am יהוה, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?
Etz Chaim
It is a tree of life for those who cling to it,
and those who uphold it are happy.
Its ways are pleasant and all of its paths peaceful.
Return us to You, Lord, so that we shall return,
Renew our days, as of old.