Di Year of Jubilee

One trumpet wey dem make from ram horn sound from top one hill. Then another one, from di next village. And another one. Across di whole land, di trumpets dey call. Something dey about to become free.

For Mount Sinai, God dey prepare im people for life for di land wey e don promise dem. Each family and tribe go receive one share of am, farms and olive trees and vineyards. But God know wetin dey happen to people as time dey go. Harvest fit fail. Families fall enter debt. Somebody go sell farm to buy bread. Another person go dey buy more and more. And before long, few people go rich and many go get nothing. So God give Moses one law wey almost no other law for di ancient world resemble. Law wey go reset everything.

Count seven sabbath years, God talk. Seven times seven years, forty-nine years in all. Then, for di Day of Atonement, for di seventh month, sound di trumpet all over your land. Make di fiftieth year holy. Announce freedom all over di land to everybody wey dey live there. E go be jubilee for una. And for dat year, every one of una go return to una own family land, and every one of una go return to una family. Imagine one grandpapa wey sell im farm when e still young. Now, for di jubilee, im grandchildren fit waka go back enter di land wey suppose be their own from di beginning.

Dis one change how buying and selling dey work. God talk: when you sell land to your neighbour, or you buy am, no cheat each other. Count di years until di next jubilee. If many years remain, di price go high. If na few, di price go low. Because for real, no be di land you dey buy. Na number of harvests you dey buy. And then God explain why. Dem must not sell di land forever, e talk, because di land na my own. Una be strangers and guests with me. If one family member fall into hard times and sell land, one close relative suppose buy am back for am. God mean make families take care of each other.

And no be only land. If your brother become poor and e no fit take care of imself, God talk, help am. Make e live near you. No collect interest from am. No sell food give am to make profit. If e become poor reach where e sell imself give you, no make am work like slave. Treat am like worker wey you hire. And for di year of jubilee, e go dey free, with im children, go back to im family and di land of im fathers. Why? Because dem be my servants, God talk, wey I bring comot from Egypt. As e be, people dey worry. If nobody plant or harvest for di jubilee, wetin we go chop? God answer dat one too. I go send my blessing for di sixth year, so di land go produce enough for three years. Trust me.

For Philadelphia, for America, one famous bell wey don crack dey hang, wey dem dey call di Liberty Bell. Dem make am for di seventeen-fifties for di Pennsylvania State House, di building wey dem now dey call Independence Hall. Round im top na words from dis chapter, Leviticus twenty-five, verse ten. Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Wey mean, announce freedom for di whole land to everybody wey dey live inside. Later, people wey dey fight to end slavery take di bell as their symbol, and give am di name wey e still carry.

Di Year of Jubilee. You go find am for Leviticus chapter twenty-five. Every fifty years, one trumpet, one homecoming, and one fresh start, because di land and di people belong to God. So see one question wey you go carry dey go. Who around you need fresh start, and how you fit help am get one?