Day 38: Leviticus 25-27

(The previous post concluded God's instructions specific to priests. Also, the Seven Feasts of God were presented and God gave a practical example of how to apply the Law to a blasphemer.

Leviticus 25

(This chapter covered special Sabbaths and Jubilees.)

(Verses 1-2: the land and its Sabbath.)

¹ And Jehovah spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
² Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Jehovah.

(Verses 3-7: How to give the land its Sabbath.)

³ Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof;
⁴ but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto Jehovah: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
⁵ That which groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
⁶ And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger, who sojourn with thee.
⁷ And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.

(The Sabbath of the 7th year, details for how to give the land a Sabbath: Rest the land every seven years from the first causes of the person and allow God to be the first cause for that year. In the next chapter, God said He would make sure the land got a Sabbath even if He had to exile Israel from the land.)

(Verses 8-17: the year of Jubilee.)

⁸ And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.
⁹ Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.
¹⁰ And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
¹¹ A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines.
¹² For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
¹³ In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.
¹⁴ And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not wrong one another.
¹⁵ According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee.
¹⁶ According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops doth he sell unto thee.
¹⁷ And ye shall not wrong one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am Jehovah your God.

(Jubilee, or Jubile, came from the Hebrew word tĕruw`ah which meant: "alarm, signal, sound of tempest, shout, shout or blast of war or alarm or joy." The first of the seventh month was announced with a sound of a trumpet. The year of Jubilee was tied to the Day of Atonement. Possessions reverted back to the original owner every fifty years.)

(Verses 18-22: God's provision for the Sabbath year.)

¹⁸ Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
¹⁹ And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
²⁰ And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;
²¹ then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
²² And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, ye shall eat the old store.

(God's answer to how people would eat during the Sabbath Year: God would provide three times as much. God used a "question and answer" approach to illustrate His perspective to Israel.)

(Verses 23-34: Rules regarding the redemption of property.)

²³ And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

(Verses 24-28: the role of the kinsman-redeemer.)

²⁴ And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
²⁵ If thy brother be waxed poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold.
²⁶ And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxed rich and find sufficient to redeem it;
²⁷ then let him reckon the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession.
²⁸ But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

(Verses 29-34: the exception for urban real estate.)

²⁹ And if a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.
³⁰ And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.
³¹ But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
³² Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
³³ And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
³⁴ But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

(The redemption of property was explained: not permanently sold, could be redeemed if a person needed money, however land in a walled city could be permanently sold. This was "private property.")

(Verses 35-38: Lending to the poor.)

³⁵ And if thy brother be waxed poor, and his hand fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee.
³⁶ Take thou no interest of him or increase, but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
³⁷ Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase.
³⁸ I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

(Verses 39-46: Becoming a slave to pay debt.)

³⁹ And if thy brother be waxed poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bond-servant.
⁴⁰ As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee:
⁴¹ then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
⁴² For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
⁴³ Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.
⁴⁴ And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou shalt have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
⁴⁵ Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they shall be your possession.
⁴⁶ And ye shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall ye take your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.

(Verses 47-55: Redeeming a slave.)

⁴⁷ And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxed rich, and thy brother be waxed poor beside him, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner with thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family;
⁴⁸ after that he is sold he may be redeemed: one of his brethren may redeem him;
⁴⁹ or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be waxed rich, he may redeem himself.
⁵⁰ And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he sold himself to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.
⁵¹ If there be yet many years, according unto them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
⁵² And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his years shall he give back the price of his redemption.
⁵³ As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.
⁵⁴ And if he be not redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him.
⁵⁵ For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.

(Details for dealing with the poor: lend without interest, Israelites could sell themselves to pay off debts and be released in Jubilee, they could redeem an Israelite out of slavery.)




Leviticus 26

(This chapter covered blessings and curses.)

(Verses 1-13: Blessings for keeping and walking in God's commandments.)

¹ Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am Jehovah your God.

(God wanted nothing made (physical) that people could bow down to.)

² Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Jehovah.
³ If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

(If they obeyed God's commandments...)

⁴ then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

(...then He would give them rain and the land would be profitable.)

⁵ And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
⁶ And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
⁷ And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
⁸ And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
⁹ And I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.

(God acted according to this in 2 Kings 13:23.)

¹⁰ And ye shall eat old store long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old because of the new.
¹¹ And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
¹² And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

(God would walk among them. Paul referenced this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:16.)

¹³ I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.

(Verses 14-39: Curses for not keeping and walking in God's commandments. God would justly take value away. There were many more curses than blessings.)

¹⁴ But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
¹⁵ and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;
¹⁶ I also will do this unto you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

(If the Israelites rejected God, He would bring sickness upon them. This would be for their long term benefit as it should get their attention in the short term.)

¹⁷ And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

(God acted according to this in 1 Samuel 4:10 and 1 Samuel 31:1.)

¹⁸ And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

(Notice, all of the curses were in response to Justice.)

¹⁹ And I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass;

(God acted according to this in 2 Kings 17:1.)

²⁰ and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
²¹ And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
²² And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.

(God acted according to this in 2 Kings 17:25-26.)

²³ And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto me;
²⁴ then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.

(Again, in response to Justice.)

²⁵ And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and ye shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

(God acted according to this in Numbers 16:49 and 2 Samuel 24:15.)

²⁶ When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.

(God acted according to this in Haggai 1:6.)

²⁷ And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
²⁸ then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.

(Still, in response to Justice.)

²⁹ And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

(God acted according to this in 2 Kings 6:28-29.)

³⁰ And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.

(God acted according to this in 2 Kings 23:8, 20.)

³¹ And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.

(God acted according to this in 2 Kings 25:4-10 and 2 Chronicles 36:19.)

³² And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
³³ And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

(God acted according to this according to Psalm 44:11-14.)

³⁴ Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.

(This was an effect of the forthcoming captivity.)

³⁵ As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

(God acted according to this in 2 Chronicles 36:21.)

³⁶ And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
³⁷ And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
³⁸ And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
³⁹ And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

(Verses 40-46: the blessings of repentance.)

⁴⁰ And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary unto me,
⁴¹ I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity;
⁴² then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
⁴³ The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, while it lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected mine ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
⁴⁴ And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God;
⁴⁵ but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Jehovah.

(Repentance would remove the curses.)

⁴⁶ These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Jehovah made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by Moses.

(This chapter was based on Justice and followed the pattern: achieve gain, fear of loss, and a way to repair.)




Leviticus 27

(This chapter covered redeeming things vowed to God.)

(Verses 1-2: God introduced the idea of consecrating a person to the Lord.)

¹ And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
² Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall accomplish a vow, the persons shall be for Jehovah by thy estimation.

(Verses 3-8: Assigning value for persons consecrated by a vow.)

³ And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
⁴ And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels.
⁵ And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
⁶ And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.
⁷ And if it be from sixty years old and upward; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
⁸ But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of him that vowed shall the priest value him.

(God introduced a valuation by age and sex, by ability in an agricultural society. Men paid a higher rate. Ages 20-60 paid the highest rate. A 5-20 year old male paid more than a 60+ year old male. However, females for these same ranges paid the same amount. Men past 60 years old lost a lot of value. Priests negotiated with those who were too poor.)

(Verses 9-13: Animals.)

⁹ And if it be a beast, whereof men offer an oblation unto Jehovah, all that any man giveth of such unto Jehovah shall be holy.
¹⁰ He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy.
¹¹ And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer an oblation unto Jehovah, then he shall set the beast before the priest;
¹² and the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou the priest valuest it, so shall it be.
¹³ But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.

(Verses 14-25: Houses and land.)

¹⁴ And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto Jehovah, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.
¹⁵ And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.
¹⁶ And if a man shall sanctify unto Jehovah part of the field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the sowing thereof: the sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
¹⁷ If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy estimation it shall stand.
¹⁸ But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain unto the year of jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from thy estimation.
¹⁹ And if he that sanctified the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him.
²⁰ And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more:
²¹ but the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto Jehovah, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's.
²² And if he sanctify unto Jehovah a field which he hath bought, which is not of the field of his possession;
²³ then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation unto the year of jubilee: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto Jehovah.
²⁴ In the year of jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongeth.
²⁵ And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

(Details for houses and land: a house was similar to an unclean animal, land was similar to a person based on years to Jubilee.)

(Verses 26-27: Firstborns.)

²⁶ Only the firstling among beasts, which is made a firstling to Jehovah, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox or sheep, it is Jehovah's.
²⁷ And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall ransom it according to thine estimation, and shall add unto it the fifth part thereof: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation.

(Details for firstborns: automatically dedicated to the Lord (Exodus 13:2) so you could not consecrate them.)

(Verses 28-29: Could not redeem things or people devoted to the Lord.)

²⁸ Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto Jehovah of all that he hath, whether of man or beast, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto Jehovah.
²⁹ No one devoted, that shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

(Verses 30-33: the redemption of tithes.)

³⁰ And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is Jehovah's: it is holy unto Jehovah.
³¹ And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto it the fifth part thereof.
³² And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto Jehovah.
³³ He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.

(Verse 34: God's conclusion.)

³⁴ These are the commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

(God’s declaration of expectation.)

(This post concluded by covering blessings and curses from God based on the peoples' response to God's commandments.)

(Leviticus was the third of five books written by Moses that made up the first section of the Old Testament known as the Torah. This third book of the Old Testament covered the sanctuary and its relation to man. It documented some of God's procedures necessary to carry out the Law presented in the Book of Exodus. This book was called Leviticus because God began with the leaders, the levitical priests. The next book continued the narrative from where the Book of Exodus left off in order to show man's progress towards eternal life.)

Day 39