• Torah (T): Wayiqra (Leviticus) 25:1-38
• Prophets (P): Jeremiah 11:14-23
• Apostolic (A): Hebrews 11:13-16; 1 Peter 2:11-16
• Additional (ADD): Jubilees 50:1-5

RELATED SCRIPTURES

• Exodus 23:9-12 (T)
• Leviticus 23:9-22 (T)
• Deuteronomy 15:1-18 (T)
• Jeremiah 34:12-19 (T)
• Jeremiah 29:4-14 (T)
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (T)
• Nehemiah 10:28-31 (T)
• Ezekiel 18:1-18 (T)
• Psalms 39:11-13 (T)
• Exodus 16:4-6 (T)
• 2 Kings 19:29-31 (T)
• Psalms 119:17-19 (T)
• 1 Chronicles 29:10-15 (T)
• Exodus 22:25-27 (T)
• Deuteronomy 23:19-20 (T)
• Psalms 15:1-5 (T)
• Proverbs 28:3-8 (T)

RELATED ADDITIONAL REA.D.INGS

• The Coming of Melchizedek 11Q13 Column 2 (T)
• The Damascus Document 4Q271 Fragment 1 Column 1 (T)
• Leviticus 25:1-38 from the Jerusalem Targum aka Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (T)
• Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus 3.12.3; 4.8.28 (T)

Note: (T) means the verse relates to that week’s Torah portion. (P) means the verse relates to that week’s Prophets portion. (A) means the verse relates to that week’s Apostolic portion. (ADD) means the verse relates to that week’s Additional portion.

Torah Portion (T)

25:1 YHWH said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land will cease a Sabbath to YHWH. 3 You will sow your field six years, and you will prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; 4 but in the seventh year there will be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to YHWH. You will not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You will not reap the spontaneous growth of your harvest, and you will not gather the grapes of your separated thing. It will be a year of rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land will be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired-servant, and for your stranger, who sojourns with you. 7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, will all its increase be for food. 8 You will count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there will be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years. 9 Then you will make the shofar shout to cross over in the tenth day of the seventh new moon. On the Day of Atonements you will make the shofar cross over in all your land. 10 You will make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a yovel to you; and every man will return to his own property, and every man will return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be a yovel to you. In it you will not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a yovel; it will be holy to you. You will eat of its increase out of the field. 13 In this Year of Yovel every man will return to his property. 14 If you sell anything to your fellow, or buy from your fellow, let not a man suppress his brother. 15 According to the number of years after the Yovel you will buy from your fellow. According to the number of years of the crops he will sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you will increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you will diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. 17 Let not a man suppress his fellow, but you will fear your Elohim; for I am YHWH your Elohim. 18 Therefore you will do my statutes, and guard my judgments and do them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 If you said, “What will we eat the seventh year? Behold, we will not sow, nor gather in our increase;” 21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bear fruit for the three years. 22 You will sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old store until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you will eat the old store. 23 The land will not be sold permanently, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. 24 In all the land of your possession you will grant a redemption for the land. 25 If your brother becomes low, and sells his possession, then a near one will come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he will return to his property. 28 But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold will remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Yovel. In the Yovel it will go out, and he will return to his property. 29 If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he will have the right of redemption. 30 If it isn’t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city will rise permanently to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It will not go out in the Yovel. 31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them will be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they will go out in the Yovel. 32 In the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time. 33 The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it will go out in the Yovel; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. 34 But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their forever possession. 35 If your brother has become low, and his hand totters among you, then you will uphold him. He will live with you like a sojourner and a settler. 36 Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your Elohim. I am YHWH,^(LXX) that your brother may live among you. 37 You will not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your Elohim.

Prophets Portion (P)

11:14 “Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me [at the time]^(mss)(LXX) of their trouble. 15 What has my beloved to do in my house, since she has behaved lewdly with many, and the holy flesh has passed from you? When you do evil, then you rejoice.” 16 YHWH called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit.” With the noise of a great roar he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken. 17 For YHWH of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal. 18 YHWH gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then you showed me their doings. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” 20 But, YHWH of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause. 21 “Therefore YHWH says concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek [my]^(LXX) life, saying, ‘You will not prophesy in the name of YHWH, that you not die by our hand’— 22 therefore YHWH of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine. 23 There will be no remnant to them, for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, the year of their inspection.’ ”

Apostolic Portion (A)

Hebrews 11:13-16; 1 Peter 2:11-16

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the land. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15 If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, the heavenly one. Therefore Elohim is not ashamed of them, to be called their Elohim, for he has prepared a city for them.

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly coveting which war against the soul, 12 having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good works and glorify Elohim in the day of inspection. 13 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme, 14 or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 15 For this is the will of Elohim, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Live as free people, yet not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of Elohim.

Additional Portion (ADD)

Between 1947 and 1956 approximately 15 Jubilees scrolls were found in five caves at Qumran, all written in Hebrew. The large number of manuscripts (more than for any biblical books except for Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, in descending order) indicates that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Ethiopic version, performed by James VanderKam, found that the Ethiopic was in most respects an accurate and literalistic translation. Scholars have dated Jubilees to have been written sometime around 160-150 B.C.

50:1 And after this law I made known to thee the days of the Sabbaths in the desert of Sin[ai], which is between Elim and Sinai. 2. And I told thee of the Sabbaths of the land on Mount Sinai, and I told thee of the jubilee years in the sabbaths of years: but the year thereof have I not told thee till ye enter the land which ye are to possess. 3. And the land also will keep its sabbaths while they dwell upon it, and they will know the jubilee year. 4. Wherefore I have ordained for thee the year-weeks and the years and the jubilees: there are forty-nine jubilees from the days of Adam until this day, [2410 A.M.] and one week and two years: and there are yet forty years to come for learning the commandments of the Lord [2450 A.M.], until they pass over into the land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan to the west. 5. And the jubilees will pass by, until Israel is cleansed from all guilt of fornication, and uncleanness, and pollution, and sin, and error, and dwells with confidence in all the land, and there will be no more a Satan or any evil one, and the land will be clean from that time for evermore.

Related Scriptures

23:9 “Do not oppress a sojourner, for you know the heart of a sojourner, since you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 10 “For six years you will sow your land, and will gather in its increase, 11 but the seventh year you will let it rest and lie fallow, that the needy of your people may eat; and what they leave the beast of the field will eat. In the same way, you will deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove. 12 “Six days you will do your work, and on the seventh day you will rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the sojourner may be refreshed.

23:9 YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and will reap its harvest, then you will bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He will wave the sheaf before YHWH, to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest will wave it. 12 On the day when you wave the sheaf, you will offer a male lamb, a perfect one, a year old for a burnt offering to YHWH. 13 The grain offering with it will be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to YHWH for a pleasant aroma; and the libation offering with it will be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14 You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain, until the [bone of this day], until you have brought the offering of your Elohim. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 15 You will count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths will be completed. 16 The next day after the seventh Sabbath you will count fifty days; and you will offer a new grain offering to YHWH. 17 You will bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They will be baked with leaven, for first fruits to YHWH. 18 You will present with the bread seven lambs, perfect ones, a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to YHWH, with their grain offering and their libation offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet aroma to YHWH. 19 You will offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a slaughter of peace offerings. 20 The priest will wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before YHWH, with the two lambs. They will be holy to YHWH for the priest. 21 You will make proclamation on the [bone of that day] there will be a holy convocation to you. You will do no work of service. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22 When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not finish the corner of your field. You must not gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the afflicted and for the foreigner. I am YHWH your Elohim.’ ”

15:1 At the end of seven years, you will release. 2 This is the word of the release: every master of a loan, his hand which he will lend with his neighbor, he will not press from his neighbor and his brother, because YHWH’s release has been proclaimed. 3 Of a foreigner you may press it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand will release. 4 However there will be no needy with you, for YHWH will surely bless you in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance to possess. 5 Only if you diligently listen to YHWH your Elohim’s voice, to guard to do all this commandment which I command you today. 6 For YHWH your Elohim will bless you, as he promised you, and you will cause an abundance of nations to make a pledge, but you will not make a pledge, and you will rule in the abundance of nations, but in you they will not rule. 7 If a needy, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, you will not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your needy brother; 8 but you will surely open your hand to him, and will surely lend him sufficient for his lacking which will diminish for him. 9 Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your needy brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to YHWH against you, and it be sin to you. 10 You will surely give, and your heart will not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. 11 For the needy will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your afflicted, and to your needy, in your land. 12 If your brother, a Hebrew, or a Hebrewess, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you will let him go free from you. 13 When you let him go free from you, you will not let him go empty. 14 You will furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As YHWH your Elohim has blessed you, you will give to him. 15 You will remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. 16 It will be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you, 17 then you will take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he will be your servant forever. Also to your maid you will do likewise. 18 It will not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for he has been double the value of a hired hand as he served you six years. YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all that you do.

34:12 Therefore the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying, 13 “YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says: ‘I cut a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: 14 At the end of seven years, every man of you will release his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years. You will let him go free from you. But your fathers didn’t listen to me, and didn’t incline their ear. 15 You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor. You had cut a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name; 16 but you turned and profaned my name, and every man caused his servant and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return. You brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.’ ” 17 Therefore YHWH 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 YHWH, “to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. I will make you be tossed back and forth among all the reigns of the land. 18 I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts: 19 the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. 20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the heavens and for the animals of the land.

Jeremiah 29:4-14 (T)

29:4 YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished. 7 Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to YHWH for it; for in its peace you will have peace.” 8 For YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,” says YHWH. 10 For YHWH says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says YHWH, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. 12 You will call on me, and you will go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” says YHWH, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says YHWH. I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”

4:13 But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so Elohim will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Yeshua. 15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from the heavens with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with Elohim’s trumpet. The dead in Messiah will rise first, 17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

10:28 The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Torah of Elohim, their wives, their sons, and their daughters—everyone who had knowledge and understanding— 29 joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into an oath and into a swearing, to walk in Elohim’s Torah, which was given by Moses the servant of Elohim, and to guard and do all the commandments of YHWH our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes; 30 and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; 31 and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year crops and the exaction of every debt.

58:1 “Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a shofar! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the judgment of their Elohim, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to Elohim. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and press all your laborers. 4 Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to YHWH? 6 “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the crushed go free, and that you break every yoke? 7 Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the afflicted who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of YHWH will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and YHWH will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly; 10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday; 11 and YHWH will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail. 12 Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings. “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of YHWH, honorable, and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure and speaking words [in anger out of your mouth]^(LXX), 14 then you will delight yourself in YHWH, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the land, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for YHWH’s mouth has spoken it.

18:1 the word of YHWH came to me again, saying, 2 “What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the sons’ teeth are set on edge’? 3 “As I live,” says the Lord YHWH, “do not use this proverb any more in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he will die. 5 “But if a man is righteous, and does judgment and righteousness, 6 and has not eaten on the mountains, hasn’t lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hasn’t defiled his neighbor’s wife, hasn’t come near a woman in her seperation, 7 and has not suppressed any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment; 8 he who hasn’t lent to them with interest, hasn’t taken any increase from them, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man, 9 has walked in my statutes, and has guarded my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he will surely live,” says the Lord YHWH. 10 “If he fathers a son who is a robber who sheds blood, and who does any one of these things, 11 or who does not do any of those things but has eaten at the mountain shrines and defiled his neighbor’s wife, 12 has suppressed the afflicted and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has done abomination, 13 has lent with interest, and has taken increase, will he then live? He will not live. He has done all these abominations. He will surely die. His blood will be on him. 14 “Now, behold, if he fathers a son who sees all his father’s sins which he has done, and fears, and doesn’t do likewise, 15 who hasn’t eaten on the mountains, hasn’t lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hasn’t defiled his neighbor’s wife, 16 hasn’t suppressed any, hasn’t taken anything to pledge, hasn’t taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment; 17 who has withdrawn his hand from the afflicted, who hasn’t received interest or increase, has done my judgments, has walked in my statutes; he will not die for the iniquity of his father. He will surely live. 18 As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he will die in his iniquity.

16:4 Then YHWH said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the heavens for you, and the people will go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my Torah or not. 5 It will come to pass on the sixth day, that they will prepare that which they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening, you will know that YHWH has brought you out from the land of Egypt…”

19:29 “This will be the sign to you: This year, you will eat that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from that; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount Zion those who will escape. YHWH’s zeal will perform this.”

39:11 When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah. 12 “Hear my prayer, YHWH, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. 13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

119:17 Do good to your servant. I will live and I will obey your word. 18 Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your Torah. 19 I am a stranger in the land. Don’t hide your commandments from me.

29:10 Therefore David blessed YHWH before all the assembly; and David said, “You are blessed, YHWH, the Elohim of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, YHWH, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all that is in the heavens and in the land is yours. Yours is the reign, YHWH, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all! In your hand is power and might! It is in your hand to make great, and to give strength to all! 13 Now therefore, our Elohim, we thank you and praise your glorious name. 14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and we have given you of your own. 15 For we are strangers before you and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the land are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.

22:25 If you lend silver to any of my people with you who is afflicted, do not be to him [like a deceiver]. Do not lay interest on him. 26 If you take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you will restore it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.

23:19 Do not lend on interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest; but do not charge your brother interest, that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.

15:1 YHWH, who will dwell in your sanctuary? Who will live on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart; 3 he who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man; 4 in whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honors those who fear YHWH; he who swears [an oath] even when it hurts, and doesn’t change; 5 he who doesn’t lend out his silver in interest, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

28:3 A dispossessed man who oppresses the helpless is like a driving rain which leaves no crops. 4 Those who forsake the Torah praise the wicked; but those who guard the Torah contend with them. 5 Evil men don’t understand justice; but those who seek YHWH understand it fully. 6 Better is the dispossessed who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich. 7 Whoever preserves the Torah is a wise son; but he who is a companion of gluttons shames his father. 8 He who makes his wealth greater by interest and increase, gathers it for one who has pity on the helpless.

Related Additional Readings​

11Q13, also 11QMelch or the Melchizedek document, is a fragmentary manuscript among the Dead Sea Scrolls (from Cave 11) which mentions Melchizedek as leader of Elohim’s angels in a war in Heaven against the angels of darkness instead of the more familiar Archangel Michael. The text is an apocalyptic commentary on the Jubilee year of Leviticus 25. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, the language of 11Q13 is Hebrew, date of composition is circa 100 B.C. The below section is from The complete Dead Sea scrolls in English Géza Vermès 2003.

And concerning that which He said, In [this] year of Jubilee [each of you will return to his property (Lev. 25:13); and likewise, And this is the manner of release:] every creditor will release that which he has lent [to his neighbour. He will not exact it of his neighbour and his brother], for Elohim’s release [has been proclaimed] (Deut. 25:2). [And it will be proclaimed at] the end of days concerning the captives as [He said, To proclaim liberty to the captives (Isa. 61:1). Its interpretation is that He] will assign them to the Sons of Heaven and to the inheritance of Melchizedek; f[or He will cast] their [lot] amid the po[rtions of Melchize]dek, who will return them there and will proclaim to them liberty, forgiving them [the wrong-doings] of all their iniquities. And this thing will [occur] in the first week of the Jubilee that follows the nine Jubilees. And the Day of Atonement is the e[nd of the] tenth [Ju]bilee, when all the Sons of [Light] and the men of the lot of Mel[chi]zedek will be atoned for. [And] a statute concerns them [to prov]ide them with their rewards. For this is the moment of the Year of Grace for Melchizedek. [And h]e will, by his strength, judge the holy ones of Elohim, executing judgement as it is written concerning him in the Songs of David, who said, ELOHIM has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the elohim he holds judgement (Psalms 82:1). And it was concerning him that he said, (Let the assembly of the peoples) return to the height above them; EL (god) will judge the peoples (Psalms 7:7-8). As for that which he s[aid, How long will you] judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah (Psalms 82:2), its interpretation concerns Belial and the spirits of his lot [who] rebelled by turning away from the precepts of Elohim to … And Melchizedek will avenge the vengeance of the judgements of Elohim… and he will drag [them from the hand of] Belial and from the hand of all the sp[irits of] his [lot].And all the ‘elohim [of Justice’] will come to his aid [to] attend to the de[struction] of Belial. And the height is … all the sons of Elohim… this … This is the day of [Peace/Salvation] concerning which [Elohim] spoke [through Isa]iah the prophet, who said, [How] beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion: Your ELOHIM [reigns] (Isa. 52:7). Its interpretation; the mountains are the prophets… and the messenger is the Anointed one of the spirit, concerning whom Dan[iel] said, [Until an anointed one, a prince (Dan. 9:25)] … [And he who brings] good [news], who proclaims [salvation]: it is concerning him that it is written… [To comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion] (Isa. 61:2-3). To comfort [those who mourn: its interpretation], to make them understand all the ages of t[ime] … In truth … will turn away from Belial… by the judgement[s] of Elohim, as it is written concerning him, [who says to Zion]; your ELOHIM reigns. Zion is …, those who uphold the Covenant, who turn from walking [in] the way of the people. And your ELOHIM is [Melchizedek, who will save them from] the hand of Belial. As for that which He said, Then you will send abroad the trump[et in] all the land (Lev. 25:9) …

The Damascus Document, also called the Damascus Covenant or the Book of the Covenant of Damascus, Cairo Damascus document (CD) or Damascus Rule, is an ancient Jewish document that some scholars suggest serves as a “bridge” document, connecting Judaism’s post-exilic ‘Enochian’-Essene majority to the asserted leadership of its radical minority Qumran-Essene community that was established in isolation near the shores of the Dead Sea. It forms part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, found after 1947 near Qumran, but two fragments had already been discovered in 1897 in the Cairo Geniza. The below section is from Wise, Michael Owen, et al. The Dead Sea Scrolls: a New Translation. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

[…] with silver […] […] and the year of [jubilee] will arrive […] […] no one should abandon […] […] for it is an abhorrent thing; and the verse that says [… … “if you buy from] your neighbor, do not defraud him” (Lev. 25:14). Now this is the meaning […] [… he must be frank about] all that he is aware of that is found [in whatever he is selling;] [if there is a fault in it] and he is aware of it, he is cheating him, whether it is human or animal.

And if […] to betroth, he will tell him about all her defects, lest he bring upon himself the judgment of [the curse, which says, “Cursed] is he who leads the blind astray on the road” (Deut. 27:18). Moreover, he should not give her to someone who is not proper for her, for this [is a case of “forbidden mixtures” …like plowing with an ox and ass, or clothing made of wool and flax together.

Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattathias in 37 AD in Jerusalem of a priestly and royal family. He excelled in his studies of Jewish law and studied with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Essenes, eventually aligning himself with the Pharisees. In 62 AD he went to Rome to free some imprisoned priests. After accomplishing this mission through the intercession of Nero’s wife, Poppaea, he returned to Jerusalem in 65 AD to find the country in revolt against Rome. Josephus shrewdly reinterpreted the Messianic prophecies. He predicted that Vespasian would become the ruler of the ‘entire world’. His prophecy became true in 68 AD when Nero committed suicide and Vespasian became Ceasar. As a result, Josephus was freed; he moved to Rome and became a Roman citizen, taking the Vespasian family name Flavius. Vespasian commissioned Josephus to write a history of the war, which he finished in 78 AD, the Jewish War. His second major work, the Antiquities of the Jews, was completed in 93 AD. The extant manuscripts of the book Antiquities of the Jews contain two references to Yeshua of Nazareth (18.3.3. and 20.9.1.) and one reference to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist (18.5.2.).

3.12.3. And truly Moses gave them all these precepts, being such as were observed during his own lifetime; but though he lived now in the wilderness, yet did he make provision how they might observe the same laws when they should have taken the land of Canaan. He gave them rest to the land from ploughing and planting every seventh year, as he had prescribed to them to rest from working every seventh day; and ordered, that then what grew of its own accord out of the land should in common belong to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that respect between their own countrymen and foreigners: and he ordained, that they should do the same after seven times seven years, which in all are fifty years; and that fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year also restores the land to its former possessors in the manner following:—When the Jubilee is come, which name denotes liberty, he that sold the land, and he that bought it, meet together, and make an estimate, on one hand, of the fruits gathered; and, on the other hand, of the expenses laid out upon it. If the fruits gathered come to more than the expenses laid out, he that sold it takes the land again; but if the expenses prove more than the fruits, the present possessor receives of the former owner the difference that was wanting, and leaves the land to him; and if the fruits received, and the expenses laid out, prove equal to one another, the present possessor relinquishes it to the former owners. Moses would have the same law obtain as to those houses also which were sold in villages; but he made a different law for such as were sold in a city; for if he that sold it tendered the purchaser his money again within a year, he was forced to restore it; but in case a whole year had intervened, the purchaser was to enjoy what he had bought. This was the constitution of the laws which Moses learned of Elohim when the camp lay under Mount Sinai, and this he delivered in writing to the Hebrews.

4.8.28. If any one be sold to one of his own nation, let him serve him six years, and on the seventh let him go free. But if he have a son by a woman servant in his purchaser’s house, and if, on account of his good-will to his master, and his natural affection to his wife and children, he will be his servant still, let him be set free only at the coming of the year of jubilee, which is the fiftieth year, and let him then take away with him his children and woman, and let them be free also.