Reply #6: An argument for socialism from Leviticus 25 [View All]

[ikojo]

25:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying:

25:2 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 the LORD.

25:3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the produce thereof.

25:4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the LORD; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

25:5 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.

25:6 And the sabbath-produce 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 the settler by thy side that sojourn with thee;

25:7 and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.

25:8 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.

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25:28 But if he have not sufficient means 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.

25:29 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.

25:30 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.

25:31 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.

25:32 But as for the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption.

25:33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold in 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.

25:34 But the fields of the open land about their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession.

25:35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with thee.

25:36 Take thou no interest of him or increase; but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

25:37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase.