Reference: Sabbatical Year
Hastings
SABBATICAL YEAR (including year of Jubilee)
1. OT references.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"When you acquire a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, and in the seventh he is to go out a free man without paying anything. If he came in by himself, he is to go out by himself. If he was married, his wife is to go out with him. read more. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and children belong to her master, and he is to go out by himself. But if the servant, in fact, says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I won't go out a free man,' then his master is to bring him before the judges and he is to bring him to the door or to the doorpost. His master is to pierce his ear with an awl, and he is to serve him permanently.
"You are to sow your land and gather its crops for six years, but you are to let it rest the seventh year, leaving it unplanted. The poor of your people may eat from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. You are to do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.
Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths.
They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That's when they'll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes.
"If a person consecrates to the LORD a portion of the field from his inheritance, then your valuation is to be based on its capacity for yielding a harvest. Each omer of barley is to be valued at 50 shekels of silver. If he consecrates his field in the year of jubilee, it is to be based on your valuation. read more. If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, then the priest is to account to him the silver according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, with a deduction corresponding to your valuation. "If the one who consecrated the field intends to redeem it, then he is to add one fifth of your valuation to it in silver, then it is to be established as his. But if he won't redeem the field, but instead sells it to another person, then it is not to be redeemed anymore. When the field is released in the jubilee, it will be holy to the LORD. As a field that's devoted, it is to belong to the priest as his inheritance. If he consecrates a field that he had bought and that isn't part of his inheritance, then the priest is to account to him the evaluated worth until the year of jubilee. Then he is to give the amount of valuation on that day as a holy gift to the LORD. During the year of jubilee, the field is to be returned by the one who originally sold it that is, to the owner of the land. Every valuation is to be according to the shekel of the sanctuary, evaluated at 20 gerahs to the shekel.
"You must cancel your debts at the end of every seventh year. This is the way to conduct remission: every creditor must cancel the loan that his friend borrowed, and he must not pressure his friend or brother to repay it, because remission to the LORD will be proclaimed. read more. You may exact payment from a foreigner, but cancel whatever your brother owes you.
"When a fellow Hebrew male or female slave is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you are to set them free. But when you set them free, don't send them away empty-handed. read more. Provide for them liberally from your flock, threshing floor, and wine vat. As the LORD your God has blessed you, so give to them. Don't ever forget that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, yet the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore, I'm giving you these commands today. "Should that slave say to you, "I won't leave you,' because he loves you and your household, and it was good for him to be with you, then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the door. Then he will be your slave forever. You are to do the same for your female slaves. Don't view this as a hardship for yourself when you set him free, for he will have served you for six years twice the time of a paid worker. Then the LORD will bless you in all that you do."
Then he gave these orders: "At the end of seven years, the year designated for release, during the Festival of Tents, when all of Israel comes to appear in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that he'll choose, read this Law aloud to them. read more. Gather the people the men, women, children, and the foreigners that live in your cities so they may hear and fear the LORD your God, and so they may be careful to obey the words contained in this Law. Their children who don't know will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan River to possess."
But Naboth replied to Ahab, "No way! The LORD prohibits the sale to you of the inheritance of my ancestors!" Ahab went back to his palace, sullen and in a foul mood, because Naboth the Jezreelite had turned down Ahab's offer by saying "I will not transfer my ancestors' inheritance to you!" He laid down on his bed, curled up with his face to the wall, and refused to eat.
All of this fulfilled what the LORD had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land's desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.
The next day, the heads of the families of all the people were gathered together, along with the priests and the descendants of Levi, to meet with Ezra the scribe in order to understand the words of the Law. They found written in the Law that the LORD had commanded through Moses that the Israelis were to live in tents during the festival scheduled for the seventh month. read more. So they circulated a proclamation throughout their towns and in Jerusalem. It said, "Go out to the hill country and bring back olive branches, wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of mature trees, in order to set up tents, as has been written." Then the people went out and found branches to make tents for themselves on the roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, and in the courts of God's Temple, in the plaza near the Water Gate, and in the plaza near the Gate of Ephraim. The entire assembly of those who had returned from exile erected tents and lived in them. Indeed, from the days of Nun's son Joshua until that day the Israelis had not done so. Joy was everywhere, and Ezra continued to read from the Book of the Law of God day by day, from the first day through the last. They celebrated for seven days, and on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly according to regulation.
As for the people of the land who bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. We will forego planting crops, and we will cancel debts during every seventh year."
As for the people of the land who bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. We will forego planting crops, and we will cancel debts during every seventh year."
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed and to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; read more. to provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of despair." "Then people will call them "Oaks of Righteousness", "The Planting of the LORD", in order to display his splendor.
This is this message from the LORD that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem proclaiming release for them. Each person was to set free his male and female slaves who were Hebrews, so that no Jewish person would enslave his brother.
"The day has arrived. Don't let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller lament, because wrath is coming to attack the entire multitude. The seller won't regain what he has sold while the crowd remains alive, because the vision concerning the entire multitude won't be annulled. No person will be able to survive because of the sin in his life.
But if he gives a gift to any of his servants, it is to belong to the servant until the Year of Release, at which time it is to be returned to the Regent Prince. His inheritance is to belong only to his sons.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me to tell the good news to the poor. He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set oppressed people free,