Day 156 of 939
LEV 25:1-31
LEV 25:1-31 · LUK 1:1-11
Not written yet
The reading for this day is below. The commentary has not been written and reviewed yet — it is added a book at a time, and every day is read by a person before it appears here.
LEV 25:1-31
1Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. 3For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops. 4But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. 6Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you, 7and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food. 8And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years. 9Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land. 10So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan. 11The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines. 12For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field. 13In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property. 14If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other. 15You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the last Jubilee; he is to sell to you according to the number of harvest years remaining. 16You shall increase the price in proportion to a greater number of years, or decrease it in proportion to a lesser number of years; for he is selling you a given number of harvests. 17Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God. 18You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land. 19Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land. 20Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’ 21But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years. 22While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in. 23The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me. 24Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land. 25If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land, 27he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property. 28But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property. 29If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains his right of redemption until a full year after its sale; during that year it may be redeemed. 30If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its buyer and his descendants. It is not to be released in the Jubilee. 31But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
Secondary reading — LUK 1:1-11
1Many have undertaken to compose an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by the initial eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. 5In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. 6Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord. 7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years. 8One day while Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10And at the hour of the incense offering, the whole congregation was praying outside. 11Just then an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.