Jeremiah 34:8

¹⁰You 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.

¹⁷Therefore the LORD says: “You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you a liberty,” says the LORD, “to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. I will make you be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁷Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’s people; also between the king and the people.

²The king went up to the LORD’s house, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the LORD’s house. ³The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people agreed to the covenant.

³⁹“‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave. ⁴⁰As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. ⁴²For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

⁴⁴“‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. ⁴⁵Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. ⁴⁶You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

¹The Lord GOD’s Spirit is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound,

¹Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. ²For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” ³There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.” ⁴There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral. ⁵Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, ^[+] we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

⁶I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. ⁷Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, everyone of his brother.” I held a great assembly against them. ⁸I said to them, “We, after our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Jews that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?” Then they held their peace, and found not a word to say. ⁹Also I said, “The thing that you do is not good. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? ¹⁰I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury. ¹¹Please restore to them, even today, 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 charging them.”

¹²Then they said, “We will restore them, and will require nothing of them. We will do so, even as you say.” Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

¹³Also I shook out my lap, and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that doesn’t perform this promise; even may he be shaken out and emptied like this.” All the assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. The people did according to this promise.

¹⁴At the end of seven years, every man of you shall release his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years. You shall let him go free from you. But your fathers didn’t listen to me, and didn’t incline their ear. ¹⁵You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor. You had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name;

¹⁰“For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase, ¹¹but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.