Leviticus 25:8-17
God restores what is lost and limits human control to preserve covenant justice.
8 “ ‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
13 “ ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
14 “ ‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.
16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.
17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.
God restores what is lost and limits human control to preserve covenant justice.
This passage institutes the Year of Jubilee, declaring release, restoration, and reset within Israel’s land, property, and social structure under the LORD’s authority.
Leviticus 25:8-17 builds directly on the Sabbath-year command of 25:1-7. The seventh-year land rest becomes the foundation for seven cycles of seven years, culminating in the Jubilee. This section introduces release and return before the chapter develops land redemption, poverty, servitude, and covenant mercy.
The LORD speaks through Moses at Sinai, giving Israel covenant legislation for life in the promised land. Israelite households who will receive land allotments and must conduct economic life under the LORD’s authority.
Sabbath for the Land, Jubilee Release, and the LORD's Ownership of Israel
Because the land and the Israelites belong to the LORD, Israel must structure land, labor, debt, poverty, redemption, and release around Sabbath trust, Jubilee restoration, and exodus-shaped mercy.