Through the Bible – Day 44

₁When Moses was on Mount Sinai, the LORD told him ₂to say to the community of Israel:

₈Once every forty-nine years ₉on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is also the Great Day of Forgiveness, trumpets are to be blown everywhere in the land. ₁₀This fiftieth year is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return home to their families. ₁₁This is a year of complete celebration, so don't plant any seed or harvest what your fields or vineyards produce. ₁₂In this time of sacred celebration you may eat only what grows on its own.

₁₃During this year, all property must go back to its original owner. _14-15So when you buy or sell farmland, the price is to be determined by the number of crops it can produce before the next Year of Celebration. Don't try to cheat. ₁₆If it is a long time before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher, because what is really being sold are the crops that the land can produce. ₁₇I am the LORD your God, so obey me and don't cheat anyone.

_18-19If you obey my laws and teachings, you will live safely in the land and enjoy its abundant crops. ₂₀Don't ever worry about what you will eat during the seventh year when you are forbidden to plant or harvest. ₂₁I will see to it that you harvest enough in the sixth year to last for three years. ₂₂In the eighth year you will live on what you harvested in the sixth year, but in the ninth year you will eat what you plant and harvest in the eighth year.

₂₃No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me—it isn't your land, and you only live there for a little while.

₂₄When property is being sold, the original owner must be given the first chance to buy it.

₂₅If any of you Israelites become so poor that you are forced to sell your property, your closest relative must buy it back, ₂₆if that relative has the money. Later, if you can afford to buy it, ₂₇you must pay enough to make up for what the present owner will lose on it before the next Year of Celebration, when the property would become yours again. ₂₈But if you don't have the money to pay the present owner a fair price, you will have to wait until the Year of Celebration, when the property will once again become yours.

₂₉If you sell a house in a walled city, you have only one year in which to buy it back. ₃₀If you don't buy it back before that year is up, it becomes the permanent property of the one who bought it, and it will not be returned to you in the Year of Celebration. ₃₁But a house out in a village may be bought back at any time just like a field. And it must be returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration. ₃₂If any Levites own houses inside a walled city, they will always have the right to buy them back. ₃₃And any houses that they do not buy back will be returned to them in the Year of Celebration, because these homes are their permanent property among the people of Israel. ₃₄No pasture land owned by the Levi tribe can ever be sold; it is their permanent possession.

₃₅If any of your people become poor and unable to support themselves, you must help them, just as you are supposed to help foreigners who live among you. _36-37Don't take advantage of them by charging any kind of interest or selling them food for profit. Instead, honour me by letting them stay where they now live. ₃₈Remember—I am the LORD your God! I rescued you from Egypt and gave you the land of Canaan, so that I would be your God.

₃₉Suppose some of your people become so poor that they have to sell themselves and become your slaves. ₄₀Then you must treat them as servants, rather than as slaves. And in the Year of Celebration they are to be set free, ₄₁so they and their children may return home to their families and property. ₄₂I brought them out of Egypt to be my servants, not to be sold as slaves. ₄₃So obey me, and don't be cruel to the poor.

₄₄If you want slaves, buy them from other nations ₄₅or from the foreigners who live in your own country, and make them your property. ₄₆You can own them, and even leave them to your children when you die, but do not make slaves of your own people or be cruel to them.

₄₇Even if some of you Israelites become so much in debt that you must sell yourselves to foreigners in your country, ₄₈you still have the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother ₄₉or uncle or cousin, or some other family member. In fact, if you ever get enough money, you may buy your own freedom ₅₀by paying your owner for the number of years you would still be a slave before the next Year of Celebration. _51-52The longer the time until then, the more you will have to pay. ₅₃And even while you are the slaves of foreigners in your own country, your people must make sure that you are not ill-treated. ₅₄If you cannot gain your freedom in any of these ways, both you and your children will still be set free in the Year of Celebration. ₅₅People of Israel, I am the LORD your God, and I brought you out of Egypt to be my own servants.

₁I am the LORD your God! So don't make or worship any sort of idols or images. ₂Respect the Sabbath and honour the place where I am worshipped, because I am the LORD.

₃Faithfully obey my laws, ₄and I will send rain to make your crops grow and your trees produce fruit. ₅Your harvest of grain and grapes will be so abundant, that you won't know what to do with it all. You will eat and be satisfied, and you will live in safety. ₆I will bless your country with peace, and you will rest without fear. I will wipe out the dangerous animals and protect you from enemy attacks. ₇You will chase and destroy your enemies, ₈even if there are only five of you and a hundred of them, or only a hundred of you and ten thousand of them. ₉I will treat you with such kindness that your nation will grow strong, and I will also keep my promises to you. ₁₀Your barns will overflow with grain each year. ₁₁I will live among you and never again look on you with disgust. ₁₂I will walk with you—I will be your God, and you will be my people. ₁₃I am the LORD your God, and I rescued you from Egypt, so that you would never again be slaves. I have set you free; now walk with your heads held high.

_14-15If you disobey me and my laws, and if you break our agreement, ₁₆I will punish you terribly, and you will be ruined. You will be struck with incurable diseases and with fever that leads to blindness and depression. Your enemies will eat the crops you plant, ₁₇and I will turn from you and let you be destroyed by your attackers. You will even run at the very rumour of attack. ₁₈Then, if you still refuse to obey me, I will punish you seven times for each of your sins, ₁₉until your pride is completely crushed. I will hold back the rain, so the sky above you will be like iron, and the ground beneath your feet will be like copper. ₂₀All your hard work will be for nothing—and there will be no harvest of grain or fruit.

₂₁If you keep rebelling against me, I'll punish you seven times worse, just as your sins deserve! ₂₂I'll send wild animals to attack you, and they will gobble up your children and livestock. So few of you will be left that your roads will be deserted.

₂₃If you remain my enemies after this, ₂₄I'll remain your enemy and punish you even worse. ₂₅War will break out because you broke our agreement, and if you escape to your walled cities, I'll punish you with horrible diseases, and you will be captured by your enemies. ₂₆You will have such a shortage of bread, that ten women will be able to bake their bread in the same oven. Each of you will get only a few crumbs, and you will go hungry.

₂₇Then if you don't stop rebelling, ₂₈I'll really get furious and punish you terribly for your sins! ₂₉In fact, you will be so desperate for food that you will eat your own children. ₃₀I'll destroy your shrines and tear down your incense altars, leaving your dead bodies piled on top of your idols. And you will be disgusting to me. ₃₁I'll wipe out your towns and your places of worship and will no longer be pleased with the smell of your sacrifices. ₃₂Your land will become so desolate that even your enemies who settle there will be shocked when they see it. ₃₃After I destroy your towns and ruin your land with war, I'll scatter you among the nations.

_34-35While you are prisoners in foreign lands, your own land will enjoy years of rest and refreshment, as it should have done each seventh year when you lived there. _36-37In the land of your enemies, you will tremble at the rustle of a leaf, as though it were a sword. And you will become so weak that you will stumble and fall over each other, even when no one is chasing you. ₃₈Many of you will die in foreign lands, ₃₉and others of you will waste away in sorrow as the result of your sins and the sins of your ancestors.

_40-41Then suppose you realize that I turned against you and brought you to the land of your enemies because both you and your ancestors had stubbornly sinned against me. If you humbly confess what you have done and start living right, ₄₂I'll keep the promise I made to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will bless your land ₄₃and let it rest during the time that you are in a foreign country, paying for your rebellion against me and my laws.

₄₄No matter what you have done, I am still the LORD your God, and I will never completely reject you or become absolutely disgusted with you there in the land of your enemies. ₄₅While nations watched, I rescued your ancestors from Egypt so that I would be their God. Yes, I am your LORD, and I will never forget our agreement.

₄₆Moses was on Mount Sinai when the LORD gave him these laws and teachings for the people of Israel.

₁The LORD told Moses ₂to say to the community of Israel:

If you ever want to free someone who has been promised to me, _3-7you may do so by paying the following amounts, weighed according to the official standards:

₈If you have promised to give someone to me and can't afford to pay the full amount for that person's release, you will be taken to a priest, and he will decide how much you can afford.

₉If you promise to sacrifice an animal to me, it becomes holy, and there is no way you can set it free. ₁₀If you try to substitute any other animal, no matter how good, for the one you promised, they will both become holy and must be sacrificed. ₁₁Donkeys are unfit for sacrifice, so if you promise me a donkey, you must bring it to the priest, ₁₂and let him determine its value. ₁₃But if you want to buy it back, you must pay an additional twenty per cent.

₁₄If you promise a house to me, a priest will set the price, whatever the condition of the house. ₁₅But if you decide to buy it back, you must pay an additional twenty per cent.

₁₆If you promise part of your family's land to me, its value must be determined by the amount of seed needed to plant the land, and the rate will be ten pieces of silver for every twenty kilogrammes of seed. ₁₇If this promise is made in the Year of Celebration, the land will be valued at the full price. ₁₈But any time after that, the price will be worked out according to the number of years before the next Year of Celebration. ₁₉If you decide to buy back the land, you must pay the price plus an additional twenty per cent, ₂₀but you cannot buy it back once someone else has bought it. ₂₁When the Year of Celebration comes, the land becomes holy because it belongs to me, and it will be given to the priests.

₂₂If you promise me a field that you have bought, ₂₃its value will be decided by a priest, according to the number of years before the next Year of Celebration, and the money you pay will be mine. ₂₄However, on the next Year of Celebration, the land will go back to the family of its original owner. ₂₅Every price will be set by the official standards.

₂₆All firstborn animals of your flocks and herds are already mine, and so you cannot promise any of them to me. ₂₇If you promise me a donkey, you may buy it back by adding an additional twenty per cent to its value. If you don't buy it back, it can be sold to someone else for whatever a priest has said it is worth.

₂₈Anything that you completely dedicate to me must be completely destroyed. It cannot be bought back or sold. Every person, animal, and piece of property that you dedicate completely is only for me. ₂₉In fact, any humans who have been promised to me in this way must be put to death.

₃₀Ten per cent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees. ₃₁If you want to buy back this part of your harvest, you may do so by paying what it is worth plus an additional twenty per cent.

₃₂When you count your flocks and herds, one out of ten of every newborn animal is holy and belongs to me, ₃₃no matter how good or bad it is. If you substitute one animal for another, both of them become holy, and neither can be bought back.

₃₄Moses was on Mount Sinai when the LORD gave him these laws for the people of Israel.

₆Jesus was in the town of Bethany, eating at the home of Simon, who had leprosy. ₇A woman came in with a bottle of expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus' head. ₈But when his disciples saw this, they became angry and complained, “Why such a waste? ₉We could have sold this perfume for a lot of money and given it to the poor.”

₁₀Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said:

₁₄Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve disciples. He went to the chief priests ₁₅and asked, “How much will you give me if I help you arrest Jesus?” They paid Judas thirty silver coins, ₁₆and from then on he started looking for a good chance to betray Jesus.

₁₇On the first day of the Festival of Thin Bread, Jesus' disciples came to him and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal?”

₁₈Jesus told them to go to a certain man in the city and tell him, “Our teacher says, ‘My time has come! I want to eat the Passover meal with my disciples in your home.’ ” ₁₉They did as Jesus told them and prepared the meal.

_20-21When Jesus was eating with his twelve disciples that evening, he said, “One of you will hand me over to my enemies.”

₂₂The disciples were very sad, and each one said to Jesus, “Lord, you can't mean me!”

₂₃He answered, “One of you men who has eaten with me from this dish will betray me. ₂₄The Son of Man will die, as the Scriptures say. But it's going to be terrible for the one who betrays me! That man would be better off if he had never been born.”

₂₅Judas said, “Teacher, surely you don't mean me!”

“That's what you say!” Jesus replied. But later, Judas did betray him.

₂₆During the meal Jesus took some bread in his hands. He blessed the bread and broke it. Then he gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this and eat it. This is my body.”

₂₇Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to God. He then gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this and drink it. ₂₈This is my blood, and with it God makes his agreement with you. It will be poured out, so that many people will have their sins forgiven. ₂₉From now on I am not going to drink any wine, until I drink new wine with you in my Father's kingdom.” ₃₀Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.