Introduction
Wise laws for governing the nation of Israel.
Questions
1. What should happen to the price of land as the Year of Jubilee approaches?
v 16 ... according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; ...
2. What sort of property will not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee?
v 30 ... the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity ... It shall not be released in the Jubilee.
3. What is to happen at the Jubilee to a poor man who has sold himself?
v 39 to 41 If your brother has grown poor amongst you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. 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.
Summary Points
- v 1 to 7 Every seventh year the land should not be cultivated, to give the soil a rest
- v 8 to 13 Every fiftieth year, in the Year of Jubilee, everything returns to its original owner. They are not to sow or reap the land
- v 14 to 17 The price of land is to be controlled by the number of years to the next Jubilee
- v 18 to 22 They are promised that there will be enough harvest in the sixth year to provide food for three years
- v 23 and 24 The Israelites are to regard the land as belonging to God
- v 25 to 28 A kinsman may redeem a poor man's property meanwhile, but he will always get it back at the Jubilee
- v 29 to 34 Details of sale and redemption of houses in walled cities are given
- v 35 to 43 The poor are to be treated sympathetically
- v 44 to 46 Instructions about slaves from other nations
v 47 to 55 Instructions about poor people who become servants of strangers or foreigners in the land