The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee
1The 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. 3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4but 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. 5Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 6All 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. 7Even 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. 9You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. 10You 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. 11You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. 12For 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. 14If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another. 15Corresponding 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. 16In 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. 17So 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. 19Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20But if you say, “What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?” 21then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. 22When 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.
20Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.
14For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, 15while it is said,
“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”
16For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
1) Why does the land itself require rest?
2) How does Sabbath rhythm teach trust in יהוה’s provision?
3) What parallels exist between the land’s rest and spiritual rest?
David’s Last Song
1Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse declares,
The man who was raised on high declares,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel,
2“The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
3The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me,
‘He who rules over men righteously,
Who rules in the fear of God,
4Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
When the tender grass springs out of the earth,
Through sunshine after rain.’
5Truly is not my house so with God?
For He has made an everlasting covenant with me,
Ordered in all things, and secured;
For all my salvation and all my desire,
Will He not indeed make it grow?
6But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns,
Because they cannot be taken in hand;
7But the man who touches them
Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,
And they will be completely burned with fire in their place.”
His Mighty Men
8These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains, he was called Adino the Eznite, because of eight hundred slain by him at one time; 9and after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there to battle and the men of Israel had withdrawn. 10He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword, and the Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to strip the slain.
11Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. 12But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.
13Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam, while the troop of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. 14David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!” 16So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord; 17and he said, “Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.
18Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. And he swung his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name as well as the three. 19He was most honored of the thirty, therefore he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the three.
20Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. 21He killed an Egyptian, an impressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and had a name as well as the three mighty men. 23He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David appointed him over his guard.
24Asahel the brother of Joab was among the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 26Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 27Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 28Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 29Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin, 30Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash, 31Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 32Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 34Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 35Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 36Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers of Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39Uriah the Hittite; thirty-seven in all.
45When Jobab died, Husham of the land of the Temanites became king in his place. 46When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the field of Moab, became king in his place; and the name of his city was Avith. 47When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah became king in his place. 48When Samlah died, Shaul of Rehoboth by the River became king in his place. 49When Shaul died, Baal-hanan the son of Achbor became king in his place. 50When Baal-hanan died, Hadad became king in his place; and the name of his city was Pai, and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. 51Then Hadad died.
Now the chiefs of Edom were: chief Timna, chief Aliah, chief Jetheth, 52chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon, 53chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar, 54chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom.
The Ark Is Brought into the Temple
1Thus all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.
2Then Solomon assembled to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. 3All the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at the feast, that is in the seventh month. 4Then all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. 5They brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up. 6And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 7Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim. 8For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles. 9The poles were so long that the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and they are there to this day. 10There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.