The Sabbatical Year

²⁵The ^Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the ^Lord.³For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield;⁴but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the ^Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.⁵You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.⁶You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound labourers who live with you;⁷for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food. ¹⁸ You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely.¹⁹The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.²⁰Should you ask, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’²¹I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years.²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.²³The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.²⁴Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.