" All For One And One For All "
Nehemiah 5 (NASB)
1 Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.2 For there were those who said, We, our sons and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live.3 There were others who said, We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.4 Also there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the kings tax on our fields and our vineyards.5 Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.6 Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words.7 I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, You are exacting usury, each from his brother! Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.8 I said to them, We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us? Then they were silent and could not find a word to say.9 Again I said, The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?10 And likewise I, my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this usury.11 Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you are exacting from them.12 Then they said, We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say. So I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.13 I also shook out the front of my garment and said, Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen! And they praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.14 Moreover, from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governors food allowance.15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God.16 I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.17 Moreover, there were at my table one hundred and fifty Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.18 Now that which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the governors food allowance, because the servitude was heavy on this people.19 Remember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Leviticus 25 (NASB)
1 The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD.3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.5 Your harvests aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.6 All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you.7 Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.8 You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.9 You shall then sound a rams horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.10 You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.11 You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.13 On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.14 If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friends hand, you shall not wrong one another.15 Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.16 In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.17 So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.18 You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that you may live securely on the land.19 Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.20 But if you say, What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?21 then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years.22 When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.23 The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.24 Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.25 If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.26 Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to find sufficient for its redemption,27 then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property.28 But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his property.29 Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.30 But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee.31 The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.32 As for cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession.33 What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.34 But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.35 Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.36 Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your countryman may live with you.37 You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.39 If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slaves service.40 He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.41 He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers.42 For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale.43 You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have--you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.45 Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.46 You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.47 Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a strangers family,48 then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,49 or his uncle, or his uncles son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.50 He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him.51 If there are still many years, he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption;52 and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption.53 Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.54 Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.55 For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 15 (NASB)
1 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.2 This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the LORDS remission has been proclaimed.3 From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.4 However, there will be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.6 For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.7 If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;8 but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.9 Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of remission, is near, and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you.10 You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.11 For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.12 If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.13 When you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.14 You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.16 It shall come about if he says to you, I will not go out from you, because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you;17 then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.18 It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.19 You shall consecrate to the LORD your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.20 You and your household shall eat it every year before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses.21 But if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.22 You shall eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
1 Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.2 For there were those who said, We, our sons and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live.3 There were others who said, We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.4 Also there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the kings tax on our fields and our vineyards.5 Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.6 Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words.7 I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, You are exacting usury, each from his brother! Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.8 I said to them, We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us? Then they were silent and could not find a word to say.9 Again I said, The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?10 And likewise I, my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this usury.11 Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you are exacting from them.12 Then they said, We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say. So I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.13 I also shook out the front of my garment and said, Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen! And they praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.14 Moreover, from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governors food allowance.15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God.16 I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.17 Moreover, there were at my table one hundred and fifty Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.18 Now that which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the governors food allowance, because the servitude was heavy on this people.19 Remember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Leviticus 25 (NASB)
1 The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD.3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.5 Your harvests aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.6 All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you.7 Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.8 You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.9 You shall then sound a rams horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.10 You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.11 You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.13 On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.14 If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friends hand, you shall not wrong one another.15 Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.16 In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.17 So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.18 You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that you may live securely on the land.19 Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.20 But if you say, What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?21 then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years.22 When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.23 The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.24 Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.25 If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.26 Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to find sufficient for its redemption,27 then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property.28 But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his property.29 Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.30 But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee.31 The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.32 As for cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession.33 What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.34 But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.35 Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.36 Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your countryman may live with you.37 You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.39 If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slaves service.40 He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.41 He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers.42 For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale.43 You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have--you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.45 Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.46 You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.47 Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a strangers family,48 then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,49 or his uncle, or his uncles son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.50 He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him.51 If there are still many years, he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption;52 and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption.53 Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.54 Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.55 For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 15 (NASB)
1 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.2 This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the LORDS remission has been proclaimed.3 From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.4 However, there will be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.6 For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.7 If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;8 but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.9 Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of remission, is near, and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you.10 You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.11 For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.12 If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.13 When you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.14 You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.16 It shall come about if he says to you, I will not go out from you, because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you;17 then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.18 It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.19 You shall consecrate to the LORD your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.20 You and your household shall eat it every year before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses.21 But if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.22 You shall eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.