Jubilee Year

Click here to read Leviticus 25.

Chapter 25 establishes the "Year of the Jubilee". The following regulations were to be observed:

1. Concerning the land:
   1. Crops shall be planted, harvested and rotated for six years. On the seventh year, the land shall rest.
2. Concerning people:
   1. For 49 years life shall go on as usual, but on the 50^th year, liberty shall be proclaimed throughout the land. Each person shall return to their own family. No one sows or reaps.
3. Property ownership. On the year of Jubilee, all property shall be returned to its original owners. The original owner shall refund the purchase price based on the number of years the person had of the land. If he had use of it for 49 years, he got nothing but if he had only 25 years use of the land, he got half of the purchase price back. This way the land always returned to the ones that had been given it by the Lord. For the land belonged to the Lord and He only allowed them the use of it. If the original owner did not have the money to buy back the land, the next of kin would redeem it for him.
4. House ownership. If a man sells a house in a walled city, he may redeem the house within one year. Houses in the country were subject to the Jubilee redeeming statute.
5. Bondservants and slaves. If your brother becomes poor and cannot support himself, you shall support him and he will become your servant until the Jubilee year when you must release him. You may buy male and female slaves and bequeath them to your sons. If a brother sells himself to a stranger to the household of Israel, his kinsman may redeem him on the year of the Jubilee. The price will depend on his years of service.

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