Land, as a divine responsibility

Israel's land is a gift from God, though ultimately it remains under divine ownership. Life in the land is therefore characterised by both privilege and responsibility.

The land is a gift from God

Deuteronomy 26:5–9

and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor. So we called out to the LORD, the God of our fathers; and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, toil, and oppression. Then the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, signs, and wonders. And He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

It is Israel's inheritance

Deuteronomy 26:1 See also Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 4:21, Deuteronomy 4:38, Deuteronomy 15:4, Deuteronomy 19:10

When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and settle in it,

Eleven full tribes share the inheritance

Numbers 26:52–55

Then the LORD said to Moses, “The land is to be divided among the tribes as an inheritance, according to the number of names. Increase the inheritance for a large tribe and decrease it for a small one; each tribe is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those registered. Indeed, the land must be divided by lot; they shall receive their inheritance according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.

Inherited land east of Jordan allotted by Moses

Numbers 32:33 See also Joshua 12:6, Joshua 13:8, Joshua 13:15, Joshua 13:24, Joshua 13:29

So Moses gave to the Gadites, to the Reubenites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan — the land including its cities and the territory surrounding them.

Inherited land west of Jordan allotted by Joshua and others

Numbers 34:17–29 See also Joshua 14:1, Joshua 14:13, Joshua 15:1, Joshua 15:20, Joshua 16:4, Joshua 18:11, Joshua 19:1, Joshua 19:10, Joshua 19:17, Joshua 19:24, Joshua 19:32, Joshua 19:40, Joshua 19:51

Levi receives no inheritance of land

Numbers 26:62; Deuteronomy 18:1; Joshua 13:14, Joshua 13:33

Israelite households to hold their inheritance in perpetuity

Numbers 36:7–9 See also 1 Kings 21:3; Ezekiel 46:18

No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”

The land remains under divine ownership

Leviticus 25:23

The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

Responsibility to God for the land

See also Matthew 21:33–46

The tithe

Leviticus 27:30 The tithe of the land's produce given to the LORD, is a kind of rent, a way of acknowledging his ownership.

Thus any tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

Harvest festivals

Exodus 23:16 See also Leviticus 23:15–21, Leviticus 23:33–43

You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.

Sabbath rest

Leviticus 25:1–7

Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land — a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you— for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you, and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.

The Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:8–13

And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years — seven times seven years — so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years. Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land. So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan. The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field. In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

Responsibility to fellow Israelites in the land

Individual property rights to be respected

Deuteronomy 19:14 See also Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 15:25, Proverbs 22:28, Proverbs 23:10; Hosea 5:10

You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

Violation of these rights severely condemned

Isaiah 5:8 See also 1 Kings 21:17–19; Job 20:19; Ezekiel 45:8–9; Micah 2:2, Micah 2:9

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

Responsibility to the poor in the land

The fallow (sabbath) year

Exodus 23:10–11 See also Leviticus 25:6–7; Deuteronomy 15:1–3 Debts probably include the labour of a debtor's dependants, working to pay off his debt.

For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.

The Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:8–13

Harvesting conventions

Leviticus 19:9–10 See also Leviticus 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:19–22; Ruth 2:2–3

When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.

The land reflects God's blessing and curse

Blessing

Deuteronomy 28:1–6, Deuteronomy 28:11–12 See also Leviticus 25:18–19; Deuteronomy 11:13–15; Psalm 65:9–13, Psalm 67:5–6

“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock — the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

The LORD will make you prosper abundantly — in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land — in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none.

Curse

Deuteronomy 28:15, Deuteronomy 28:18, Deuteronomy 28:21 See also Leviticus 18:24–28, Leviticus 20:22–24, Leviticus 26:42–45; 1 Kings 17:1

If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.