Leviticus 25, Psalm 32, Ecclesiastes 8, 2 Timothy 4

Leviticus 25,

1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
 
2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD.
 
3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.
 
4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
 
5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.
 
6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you-for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,
 
7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
 
8 " 'Count off seven sabbaths of years-seven times seven years-so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.
 
9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.
 
10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.
 
11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.
 
12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
 
13 " 'In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.
 
14 " 'If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other.
 
15 You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops.
 
16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops.
 
17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.
 
18 " 'Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.
 
19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.
 
20 You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?"
 
21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
 
22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
 
23 " 'The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.
 
24 Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
 
25 " 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold.
 
26 If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it,
 
27 he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own property.
 
28 But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property.
 
29 " 'If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time he may redeem it.
 
30 If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and his descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee.
 
31 But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee.
 
32 " 'The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess.
 
33 So the property of the Levites is redeemable-that is, a house sold in any town they hold-and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites.
 
34 But the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession.
 
35 " 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.
 
36 Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you.
 
37 You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit.
 
38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
 
39 " 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave.
 
40 He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
 
41 Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers.
 
42 Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.
 
43 Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.
 
44 " 'Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.
 
45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.
 
46 You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
 
47 " 'If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan,
 
48 he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him:
 
49 An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
 
50 He and his buyer are to count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for his release is to be based on the rate paid to a hired man for that number of years.
 
51 If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption a larger share of the price paid for him.
 
52 If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to compute that and pay for his redemption accordingly.
 
53 He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year; you must see to it that his owner does not rule over him ruthlessly.
 
54 " 'Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee,
 
55 for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Psalm 32,

1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
 
2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
 
3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
 
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah
 
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
 
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.
 
7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
 
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
 
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
 
10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.
 
11 Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!
 

Ecclesiastes 8,

1 Who is like the wise man? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance.
 
2 Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God.
 
3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.
 
4 Since a king's word is supreme, who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
 
5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
 
6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him.
 
7 Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come?
 
8 No man has power over the wind to contain it ; so no one has power over the day of his death.As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
 
9 All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.
 
10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried-those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.
 
11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.
 
12 Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God.
 
13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
 
14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.
 
15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.
 
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man's labor on earth-his eyes not seeing sleep day or night-
 
17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.

2 Timothy 4

1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
 
2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction.
 
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
 
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
 
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
 
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
 
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
 
8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
 
9 Do your best to come to me quickly,
 
10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
 
11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.
 
12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.
 
13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
 
14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.
 
15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
 
16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.
 
17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.
 
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
 
19 Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.
 
20 Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.
 
21 Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.
 
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.