Leviticus 25

Lev. 25 covers a lot of God's plan for real estate.

Crop fields must take a year of Sabbath. At first, there seems to be no indication that the land Sabbath for the entire community must be the same year. However, when we see the calculations for the year of Jubilee, it seems to assume that every farmer will take the same year.

As for the year of Jubilee, every 50th year is the year and land ownership reverts back to the family of the original owners. This only applies to countryside property. So, the most anyone can rent the land is 49 years, and the price for the land use is calculated based on the years to Jubilee.

Land within walled cities can be bought for pertuity and the Jubilee year has no effect on that.

The year of Jubilee has another effect - freedom of all Israelite slaves/servants. This will be covered later.

The year of Jubilee is also another year that the land must remain fallow. So, if we have 7 cycles of land/use and Sabbath, then every 50 years the land will remain fallow for 2 consecutive years.

God anticipates the farmers' reaction to this and in the text says that land production in the year before land Sabbath will be so big that there will be 3 years' worth of crops. Woah.

As for slaves, we see a bit more. The Israelites are to treat fellow Israelite slaves more as servants. They cannot abuse them and it is temporary. At the year of Jubilee, they are free can and return to their family lands.

As for non-Israelites slaves, Israelites are free to own non-Israelite slaves and are not required to ever release them or treat them as humanely as they would Israelite slaves.

Why the distinction? Well, at the very least, it would create an incentive for the non-Israelite slave to become an Israelite, at least culturally and religiously. As for a modern application to this, in the Christian era after the Gospel went to the Gentiles, the ethnic distinction is erased and we would all be considered Israelites or at least potential-Israelites. In my view, this would raise the bar to remove the harsher form of slavery to all.