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The Sabbatical Year

25The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:

The Year of Jubilee

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. ⁹Then 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. ¹⁰And 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. ¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

13 In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. ¹⁴When you make a sale to your neighbour or buy from your neighbour, you shall not cheat one another. ¹⁵When you buy from your neighbour, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop-years. ¹⁶If 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. ¹⁷You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

Psalm 67

1  God be gracious to us and bless us ♦︎
   and make his face to shine upon us,
2  That your way may be known upon earth, ♦︎
   your saving power among all nations.
3  Let the peoples praise you, O God; ♦︎
   let all the peoples praise you.
4  O let the nations rejoice and be glad, ♦︎
   for you will judge the peoples righteously
      and govern the nations upon earth.
5  Let the peoples praise you, O God; ♦︎
   let all the peoples praise you.
6  Then shall the earth bring forth her increase, ♦︎
   and God, our own God, will bless us.
7  God will bless us, ♦︎
   and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

The Death of John the Baptist

14At that time Herod the ruler^* heard reports about Jesus; ²and he said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ ³For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,^{* 4}because John had been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ ⁵Though Herod^* wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. ⁶But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod ⁷so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. ⁸Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’ ⁹The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; ¹⁰he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. ¹¹The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. ¹²His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.