Leviticus 25:8-13

Regulations for the Jubilee Year of Release

25:8 “‘You must count off ¹  seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, ²  and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years. ³  25:9 You must sound loud horn blasts ⁴  – in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement – you must sound the horn in your entire land. 25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, ⁵  and you must proclaim a release ⁶  in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; ⁷  each one of you must return ⁸  to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. ⁹  25:12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you – you may eat its produce ¹⁰  from the field.

Release of Landed Property

25:13 “‘In this year of jubilee you must each return ¹¹  to your property.

Leviticus 25:50-54

25:50 He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years ¹²  from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. ¹³  25:51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them ¹⁴  he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption, 25:52 but if only a few years remain ¹⁵  until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption. 25:53 He must be with the one who bought him ¹⁶  like a yearly hired worker. ¹⁷  The one who bought him ¹⁸  must not rule over him harshly in your sight. 25:54 If, however, ¹⁹  he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free ²⁰  in the jubilee year, he and his children with him,

¹ tn Heb “And you shall count off for yourself.”

² tn Heb “seven years seven times.”

³ tn Heb “and they shall be for you, the days of the seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years.”

⁴ sn On the “loud horn blasts” see the note on Lev 23:24, but unlike the language there, the Hebrew term for “horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar) actually appears here in this verse (twice).

⁵ tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

⁶ tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

⁷ tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

⁸ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

⁹ tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”

¹⁰ tn That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).

¹¹ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

¹² tn Heb “the years.”

¹³ tn Heb “as days of a hired worker he shall be with him.” For this and the following verses see the explanation in P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 358-59.

¹⁴ tn Heb “to the mouth of them.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “but if a little remains in the years.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “be with him”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Heb “As a hired worker year in year.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn Heb “And if.”

²⁰ tn Heb “go out.”