The most instructive passage on economic behavior is Leviticus 25 instructions concerning the sabbath and Jubilee. Chapter 25 is often referred to as the "Jubilee Code."
Leviticus 25:1-7
1 The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2 Speak 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. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4 but 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. 5 You 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. 6 You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath -- you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; 7 for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
To my knowledge, Sabbath observance began here. Some make a case for Sabbath observance back to Adam, but the consensus seems to be that it originated at Sinai. It is hard to imagine a more dramatic display of trust in God than to see an entire society cease labor for an entire year every seven years. Such a practice would free the Israelites from anxious striving and draw their focus to God. Neighboring people could not help but take notice.
Leviticus 25:8-12
8 You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month -- on the day of atonement -- you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. 10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
The Jubilee was to occur on every seventh sabbath year or once every 49 years. The passage's wording makes it confusing; some have said it was to be every 50 years. However, by the time of the New Testament era, most Jewish scholars believed that the first year was between years 0 and 1, the second between years 1 and 2, and so on. Thus, the fiftieth year was between years 49 and 50. This is similar to living in the 2000s but calling it the twenty-first century.
The key economic principle hinted at here is private ownership. Each person was told to return to their own land. However, that ownership was granted by God and could not be permanently transferred to anyone else. In short, the land was ultimately God's land, and the Israelite was a steward of it. Their land was to be a reminder of God's faithfulness.
Leviticus 25:13-17 NRSV
13 In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. 15 When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. 16 If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17 You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
The land was treated as a means of production. It technically was not sold. It was leased. The maximum lease price was based on the number of crops before the next Jubilee. Sabbath years were subtracted from this total, and the debtor was not required to make payments in Sabbath years (Deuteronomy 15:1-3). There was no debt forgiveness here because the lease expired at the beginning of the year of Jubilee. The Jubilee established an effective check against reckless lending or borrowing.
Leviticus 25:18-28 NRSV
18 You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. 20 Should you ask, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop" 21 I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years. 22 When 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. 23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. 24 Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.
25 If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold. 26 If the person has no one to redeem it, but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so, 27 the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference shall be refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned. 28 But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.
This passage shows that Jubilee was more than just an economic directive. It was an opportunity to experience God's direct provision. It also shows that God was a big believer in an "ownership society," or at least a "stewardship society." Land and labor were the two primary means of production in ancient agricultural societies. Each person and family were to have an inalienable right to land and labor, the means of production.
Leviticus 25:29-34 NRSV
29 If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year. 30 If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31 But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. 32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them. 33 Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites -- houses sold in a city belonging to them -- shall be released in the jubilee; because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34 But the open land around their cities may not be sold; for that is their possession for all time.
It is reasonable to assume that land buyers benefited from the crops and livestock they produced while using leased land. Whatever increase they experienced beyond the price they paid was not redistributed. Real estate purchased inside walled cities was not redistributed either. It was productive land and labor that was inalienable. Interestingly, verse 33 says the Levites' houses were inalienable because it was "…their possession among the people of Israel." It seems God felt it imperative that everyone have a material interest in the stewardship of creation.
Leviticus 25:35-46 NRSV
35 If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. 36 Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. 37 You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit. 38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
39 If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. 40 They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. 43 You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God. 44 As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. 45 You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. 46 You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
From our distant perspective, it is hard to appreciate how radical these instructions were. All of the nations surrounding Israel engaged in slavery. This was the abolition of slavery among the Israelites. They could take slaves from other nations, but based on laws from Leviticus and elsewhere in the Old Testament, slaves were treated better than in surrounding nations. There is also a provision against charging interest, but it is clearly in the context of someone in desperate need.
Leviticus 25:47-55 NRSV
47 If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien's family, 48 after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, 49 or their uncle or their uncle's son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves. 50 They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer. 51 If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price; 52 and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. 53 As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien's authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. 54 And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year. 55 For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
The transactions of land were lease agreements, not sales. The same was true for labor. No Israelite was sold into slavery. They leased their labor for a period of years running from the lease date until the next Jubilee. If someone had to sell their land or labor due either to hard times or injudicious action, they would be saved by the Jubilee. No one could be permanently alienated from the means of production, namely land and labor.
So, what does the Jubilee Code say to us living in the twenty-first century?
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