Year of Jubilee

The Year of Jubilee was every fiftieth year, when liberty was proclaimed, land returned to its families and Hebrew servants went free, and every seventh year the land rested and debts were released. This page lists verses on the sabbath year for the land, the release of debts and servants, the jubilee, the return of land, neglect of these years, and the acceptable year of the Lord.

A sabbath year for the land

• Exodus 23:10-11
  ¹⁰And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce, ¹¹But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
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• Leviticus 25:2-7
  ²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.“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. ³Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops. ⁴But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.But 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. ⁵That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.You 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. ⁶And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,Whatever 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 thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 25 →
• Leviticus 25:20-22
  ²⁰And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’ ²¹Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years. ²²And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 25 →

The year of release

• Deuteronomy 15:1-2
  ¹At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. ²And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord’s release.This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed.
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• Deuteronomy 15:9-10
  ⁹Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.
  Show context · Read Deuteronomy 15 →
• Deuteronomy 31:10-13
  ¹⁰And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. ¹²Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. ¹³And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
  Show context · Read Deuteronomy 31 →
• Nehemiah 10:31
  And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow, and will cancel every debt.
  Show context · Read Nehemiah 10 →

Servants set free in the seventh year

• Exodus 21:2
  If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
  Show context · Read Exodus 21 →
• Deuteronomy 15:12-15
  ¹²And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free. ¹³And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. ¹⁵And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.
  Show context · Read Deuteronomy 15 →
• Jeremiah 34:14-15
  ¹⁴At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear. ¹⁵And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.
  Show context · Read Jeremiah 34 →

Liberty proclaimed in the fiftieth year

• Leviticus 25:8-12
  ⁸And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.And 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 shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.Then 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. ¹⁰And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.So 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. ¹¹A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.The 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 the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 25 →
• Leviticus 25:39-41
  ³⁹And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor. ⁴⁰But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 25 →
• Leviticus 25:54
  And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him.Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 25 →

The land returns to its owners

• Leviticus 25:13
  In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 25 →
• Leviticus 25:23-24
  ²³The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me. ²⁴And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
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• Leviticus 25:28
  But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.But 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.
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• Leviticus 27:24
  In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong.In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was bought—the original owner of the land.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 27 →
• Numbers 36:4
  And when the jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”
  Show context · Read Numbers 36 →

When these years were not kept

• Leviticus 26:34-35
  ³⁴Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 26 →
• Leviticus 26:43
  The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.
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• 2 Chronicles 36:21
  To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.
  Show context · Read 2 Chronicles 36 →
• Jeremiah 34:16-17
  ¹⁶But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves. ¹⁷Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
  Show context · Read Jeremiah 34 →

The acceptable year of the Lord

• Isaiah 61:1-2
  ¹The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, ²To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn,
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• Luke 4:18-21
  ¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, ¹⁹To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ²⁰And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him, ²¹And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
  Show context · Read Luke 4 →

See also

• Sabbath
• Debt
• Slavery
• Poverty
• Law of Moses
• Feasts of Israel

Notes

1. Verses are quoted in the translation chosen in the Translation menu at the top of the page. See Translations for sources and copyright notices.
2. Each reference links to the full chapter so the verse can be read in context.