Daily Text and Bible Reading: Monday, February 10 [Press play below]

25.1 Jehovah spoke further to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:
25.2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you eventually come into the land that I am giving you, then the land will observe a sabbath to Jehovah.
25.3 Six years you should sow your field with seed, and six years you should prune your vineyard, and you will gather the land’s produce.
25.4 But in the seventh year, there should be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. You should not sow your field with seed or prune your vineyard.
25.5 You must not reap what grows on its own from the grain left after the harvest, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you must not gather. There should be a year of complete rest for the land.
25.6 However, you may eat the food that grows in the land during its sabbath; you, your male and female slaves, your hired worker, and the foreign settlers who are residing with you may eat it,
25.7 as well as the domestic and the wild animals in your land. Everything the land produces may be eaten.
25.8 “‘You will count off seven sabbath years, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven sabbath years will amount to 49 years.
25.9 You will then sound the horn loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement, you should cause the sound of the horn to be heard in all your land.
25.10 You must sanctify the 50th year and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants. It will become a Jubilee for you, and each of you will return to his property and each of you should return to his family.
25.11 A Jubilee is what that 50th year will become for you. You will not sow seed or reap what grew on its own from leftover grain nor gather the grapes of unpruned vines.
25.12 For it is a Jubilee. It is to be holy to you. You may eat only what the land produces by itself.
25.13 “‘In this year of the Jubilee, each of you should return to his property.
25.14 If you sell anything to your fellow man or if you buy from him, do not exploit one another.
25.15 You should buy from your fellow man, taking into account the number of the years after the Jubilee, and he should sell to you according to the remaining years for crops.
25.16 If there are many years remaining, he may increase its purchase price, and when there are few years left, he should reduce its purchase price, because he is selling you the number of crops to be produced.
25.17 No one among you should exploit his fellow man, and you must be in fear of your God, for I am Jehovah your God.
25.18 By your carrying out my statutes and keeping my judicial decisions, you will dwell in security in the land.
25.19 The land will give its fruitage, and you will eat to satisfaction and dwell there in security.
25.20 “‘But if you should say: “What will we eat in the seventh year if we may not sow seed or gather our crops?”
25.21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, and the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.
25.22 Then you will sow seed in the eighth year and eat from the old crop until the ninth year. Until its crop arrives, you will eat from the old.
25.23 “‘The land should not be sold on a permanent basis, because the land is mine. For you are foreign residents and settlers from my standpoint.
25.24 Throughout the land of your possession, you should grant the right of buying back the land.
25.25 “‘If your brother becomes poor and has to sell some of his property, a repurchaser who is closely related to him must come and buy back what his brother sold.
25.26 If anyone has no repurchaser but he becomes prosperous and finds the means to repurchase it,
25.27 he should calculate its value for the years since he sold it and refund the difference to the man whom he sold it to. Then he may return to his property.
25.28 “‘But if he does not find the means to get it back from him, what he sold will remain with the purchaser until the Jubilee year; and it will revert to him in the Jubilee, and he will return to his property.
25.29 “‘Now if a man should sell a home in a walled city, his right of repurchase will also continue until the end of the year from the time of his completing the sale; his right of repurchase will be valid a whole year.
25.30 But if it is not bought back by the end of one full year, the house within the walled city will become the permanent property of its purchaser throughout his generations. It should not be released in the Jubilee.
25.31 However, the houses of settlements with no surrounding wall should be considered to be part of the field of the countryside. The right of repurchase should continue for it, and it should be released in the Jubilee.
25.32 “‘As for the houses of the Levites within their cities, the Levites will have the permanent right to repurchase them.
25.33 When the property of the Levites is not bought back, the house sold in the city belonging to them will also be released in the Jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property among the Israelites.
25.34 Moreover, the field of pasture ground surrounding their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.
25.35 “‘If your brother who is nearby becomes poor and cannot support himself, you must sustain him as you would a foreign resident and a settler, so that he may keep alive with you.
25.36 Do not take interest or make a profit from him. You must be in fear of your God, and your brother will keep alive with you.
25.37 You must not lend him your money on interest or give out your food for profit.
25.38 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, to prove myself your God.
25.39 “‘If your brother who lives nearby becomes poor and he has to sell himself to you, you must not force him to do slave labor.
25.40 He should be treated like a hired worker, like a settler. He should serve with you until the Jubilee year.
25.41 Then he will leave you, he and his children with him, and return to his family. He should return to the property of his forefathers.
25.42 For they are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They should not sell themselves the way a slave is sold.
25.43 You must not treat him cruelly, and you must be in fear of your God.
25.44 Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you, from them you may buy a male or a female slave.
25.45 Also from the sons of the foreign settlers who are residing with you, from them and from their families that are born to them in your land you may buy slaves, and they will become your possession.
25.46 You may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you to inherit as a permanent possession. You may use them as workers, but you must not subject your Israelite brothers to cruel treatment.
25.47 “‘But if a foreign resident or a settler among you becomes wealthy and your brother has become poor alongside him and must sell himself to the foreign resident or the settler who lives among you, or to a member of the family of the foreign resident,
25.48 he will continue to have the right of repurchase after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may buy him back,
25.49 or his uncle or the son of his uncle may buy him back, or any close relative, one of his family, may buy him back. “‘Or if he himself has become wealthy, he may also buy himself back.
25.50 He should calculate with his purchaser the time from the year he sold himself to him until the Jubilee year, and the money of his sale will correspond to the number of years. His workdays during that time will be assessed at the rate of a hired worker.
25.51 If there are many years remaining, he should pay his repurchase price in proportion to the years that are left.
25.52 But if only a few years remain until the Jubilee year, he should then calculate for himself and pay his repurchase price in proportion to the years remaining.
25.53 He should continue to serve him year by year as a hired worker; and you should see to it that he does not treat him cruelly.
25.54 However, if he cannot buy himself back on these terms, he will then go free in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.
25.55 “‘For the Israelites are my own slaves. They are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.
26.1 “‘You must not make worthless gods for yourselves, and you must not set up a carved image or a sacred pillar for yourselves, and you must not put a stone figure in your land in order to bow down toward it; for I am Jehovah your God.
26.2 You should keep my sabbaths and show reverence for my sanctuary. I am Jehovah.
26.3 “‘If you continue walking in my statutes and keeping my commandments and you carry them out,
26.4 I will give you showers of rain at their proper time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will give their fruit.
26.5 Your threshing season will extend until your grape harvest, and the grape harvest will extend until the sowing season; and you will eat your bread to satisfaction and dwell in security in your land.
26.6 I will put peace in the land, and you will lie down with no one making you afraid; and I will rid the land of vicious wild animals, and a sword of war will not pass through your land.
26.7 You will certainly pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.
26.8 Five of you will pursue 100, and 100 of you will pursue 10,000, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.
26.9 “‘I will direct my favor to you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will keep my covenant with you.
26.10 While you are still eating the old produce of the preceding year, you will need to clear out the old to make way for the new.
26.11 And I will place my tabernacle in your midst, and I will not reject you.
26.12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you for your part will be my people.
26.13 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be their slaves no longer, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk with heads held high.
26.14 “‘However, if you will not listen to me or keep all these commandments,
26.15 and if you reject my statutes, and if you abhor my judicial decisions so that you do not keep all my commandments, and you violate my covenant,
26.16 I, for my part, will do the following to you: I will punish you with distress, with tuberculosis and burning fever, making your eyes fail and your life waste away. You will sow your seed simply for nothing, for your enemies will eat it.
26.17 I will set my face against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies; and those who hate you will tread on you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.
26.18 “‘If even this does not make you listen to me, I will have to chastise you seven times as much for your sins.
26.19 I will break your stubborn pride and make your heavens like iron and your earth like copper.
26.20 You will exhaust your strength for nothing, as your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not produce fruit.
26.21 “‘But if you keep walking in opposition to me and refuse to listen to me, I will then have to strike you seven times as much, according to your sins.
26.22 I will send the wild animals of the field among you, and they will bereave you of children and annihilate your domestic animals and reduce your numbers, and your roads will be deserted.
26.23 “‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction and you insist on walking in opposition to me,
26.24 then I too will walk in opposition to you, and I myself will strike you seven times for your sins.
26.25 I will bring an avenging sword upon you for breaking the covenant. If you gather yourselves into your cities, I will send disease into your midst, and you will be given into the hand of an enemy.
26.26 When I destroy your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in only one oven and then ration your bread by weight; and you will eat but you will not be satisfied.
26.27 “‘If in spite of this you will not listen to me and you insist on walking in opposition to me,
26.28 I will intensify my opposition to you, and I myself will have to chastise you seven times for your sins.
26.29 So you will have to eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
26.30 I will annihilate your sacred high places and cut down your incense stands and pile your carcasses on the carcasses of your disgusting idols, and I will turn away from you in disgust.
26.31 I will give your cities to the sword and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell the pleasing aromas of your sacrifices.
26.32 I myself will make the land desolate, and your enemies who are dwelling in it will stare in amazement over it.
26.33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe a sword after you; and your land will be made desolate, and your cities will be devastated.
26.34 “‘At that time the land will pay off its sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest, as it must repay its sabbaths.
26.35 All the days it lies desolate it will rest, because it did not rest during your sabbaths when you were dwelling on it.
26.36 “‘As for those who survive, I will fill their hearts with despair in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a blowing leaf will cause them to flee, and they will flee like someone running from the sword and fall without anyone pursuing them.
26.37 They will stumble over one another like those running from a sword, though no one is pursuing them. You will not be able to resist your enemies.
26.38 You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.
26.39 Those of you who remain will be left to rot in the lands of your enemies because of your error. Yes, they will rot away because of the errors of their fathers.
26.40 Then they will confess their own error and the error and unfaithfulness of their fathers and admit that they behaved unfaithfully by walking in opposition to me.
26.41 Then I also walked in opposition to them by bringing them into the land of their enemies. “‘Perhaps then their uncircumcised heart will be humbled, and then they will pay off their error.
26.42 And I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac, and I will remember my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
26.43 While the land was abandoned by them, it was paying off its sabbaths and lying desolate without them, and they were paying for their error, because they rejected my judicial decisions and they abhorred my statutes.
26.44 But despite all of this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will never completely reject them nor cast them away to the point of exterminating them, which would violate my covenant with them, for I am Jehovah their God.
26.45 For their sakes I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt under the eyes of the nations, in order to prove myself their God. I am Jehovah.’”
26.46 These are the regulations, the judicial decisions, and the laws that Jehovah established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.
27.1 Jehovah continued to speak to Moses, saying:
27.2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If a man makes a special vow to offer the estimated value of a person to Jehovah,
27.3 the estimated value of a male from 20 to 60 years old will be 50 shekels of silver by the standard shekel of the holy place.
27.4 But if it is a female, the estimated value will be 30 shekels.
27.5 If the age is from 5 to 20 years old, the estimated value of the male will be 20 shekels and 10 shekels for the female.
27.6 If the age is from one month up to five years old, the estimated value of the male will be five shekels of silver and three shekels of silver for the female.
27.7 “‘If the age is 60 years and over, the estimated value will be 15 shekels for the male and 10 shekels for the female.
27.8 But if he is too poor to pay the estimated value, the person will stand before the priest, and the priest will set a value on him. The priest will make the valuation according to what the one making the vow can afford.
27.9 “‘If the vow involves an animal that is suitable for offering to Jehovah, whatever may be given to Jehovah will become something holy.
27.10 He may not replace it or exchange it with good for bad or with bad for good. But if he should exchange it with one animal for another animal, the original and what is exchanged for it will both become holy.
27.11 If it is an unclean animal that may not be presented as an offering to Jehovah, he will then stand the animal before the priest.
27.12 The priest will then set its value, as to whether it is good or bad. The value estimated by the priest will stand.
27.13 But if he ever wants to buy it back, he must then give a fifth of it in addition to the estimated value.
27.14 “‘Now if a man should sanctify his house as something holy to Jehovah, the priest will then set its value, whether it is good or bad. According to the value that the priest sets, that is what it will cost.
27.15 But if the one who sanctifies his house wants to buy it back, he must then give a fifth of the money of the estimated value in addition to it, and it will become his.
27.16 “‘If a man sanctifies to Jehovah some of the field that he possesses, the value will be estimated in proportion to the seed needed to sow it: a homer of barley seed will be 50 shekels of silver.
27.17 If he sanctifies his field from the year of Jubilee, the estimated value stands.
27.18 If he sanctifies his field after the Jubilee, the priest will calculate for him the price in proportion to the years that are left until the next year of Jubilee, and a deduction should be made from the estimated value.
27.19 But if the one who sanctified it should ever buy the field back, he must then give a fifth of the money of the estimated value in addition to it, and it will remain his.
27.20 Now if he should not buy the field back and the field is sold to another man, it may not be bought back again.
27.21 When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become something holy to Jehovah, as a field that is devoted to him. It will become the property of the priests.
27.22 “‘If a man sanctifies to Jehovah a field he purchased that is not part of his hereditary property,
27.23 the priest will calculate for him the amount of the valuation up until the year of Jubilee, and he will give the estimated value on that day. It is something holy to Jehovah.
27.24 In the year of Jubilee, the field will return to the one he bought it from, to the one the land belongs to.
27.25 “‘Every value should be estimated by the standard shekel of the holy place. The shekel should amount to 20 gerahs.
27.26 “‘However, no one should sanctify the firstborn of the animals, since it is born as the firstborn for Jehovah. Whether bull or sheep, it already belongs to Jehovah.
27.27 If it is among the unclean animals and he redeems it according to the estimated value, he should give a fifth of it in addition to it. But if it is not bought back, it will be sold according to the estimated value.
27.28 “‘But no devoted thing that a man devotes unconditionally to Jehovah from his belongings may be sold or bought back, whether from mankind or animals or the field he possesses. Every devoted thing is something most holy to Jehovah.
27.29 Furthermore, no condemned person who is set apart for destruction may be redeemed. He should be put to death without fail.
27.30 “‘Every tenth part of the land, whether from the produce of the field or the fruit of the trees, belongs to Jehovah. It is something holy to Jehovah.
27.31 If a man ever wants to buy any of his tenth part back, he should give a fifth of it in addition to it.
27.32 As for every tenth part of the herd and flock, everything that passes under the shepherd’s staff, the tenth animal should become something holy to Jehovah.
27.33 He should not examine whether it is good or bad, neither should he exchange it. But if he would ever try to exchange it, both the original and what is exchanged for it should become something holy. It may not be bought back.’”
27.34 These are the commandments that Jehovah gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.