Readings: Aug. 15, 2026

Starting after Sukkot 2024, Hallel Fellowship switched to a three-year cycle of Torah and parallel Bible readings (2024–2027), outlined by TorahResource. While there’s ancient evidence for a triennial cycle, a major benefit is to provide more time to mine more of Scripture for lessons.

Readings

• Leviticus 25:1–38
• Jeremiah 11
• Matthew 5:38–42

Corresponding reading from the 1-year Torah cycle

Torah reading Behar (בהר): Leviticus 25:1–26:2 

Insights from this week’s study

Leviticus 25:1–38 describes what covenant faithfulness looks like economically and socially. Jeremiah 11 exposes what happens when Israel hears the covenant but refuses to live it. Matthew 5:38–42 shows Yeshua pressing the Torah’s principles of justice, generosity and restraint into the heart. “Eye for eye” is a principle of proportional justice rather than a mandate for personal vengeance, and Yeshua (Jesus) restores its mercy-oriented purpose rather than repudiating Torah. 

A particularly important lexical connection runs from Leviticus’ Jubilee to the mission of Messiah: Hebrew דְּרוֹר deror (“liberty/release”) becomes Greek ἄφεσις aphesis (“release, remission, forgiveness”) in the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Leviticus 25:10. That same word becomes one of the New Testament’s principal terms for forgiveness and liberation from sin. 

The Exodus becomes the pattern for how redeemed people treat others

Heaven reminds Israel why the economic laws exist:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.”

Lev. 25:38 NASB95

Jeremiah 11 deliberately reaches back to the same event. Adonai describes Israel’s deliverance from Egypt as rescue from an “iron furnace” and immediately connects redemption with covenant obedience: “Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you” (Jer. 11:4).

Thus, Israel was not liberated merely from Pharaoh. Israel was liberated for Adonai (“Lord,” a Hebrew circumlocution for God).

That distinction explains Leviticus 25. Someone rescued from oppression must not become an oppressor. Israel therefore must not exploit a poor brother, manipulate land prices, charge him interest when he is destitute, or convert temporary economic hardship into permanent dispossession.

This same Exodus-to-covenant pattern appears in Jeremiah: deliverance from the “iron furnace” was not bare escape but entrance into the relationship expressed by “I will be your God, and you will be My people.” 

Yeshua in Matthew 5 then pushes the same logic into interpersonal relationships. A disciple who belongs to the Kingdom cannot simply ask, “What am I legally permitted to demand from this person?” The deeper question becomes, “How does someone redeemed by God respond when another person wrongs or exploits him?”

Bottom line: Biblical freedom does not mean, “Nobody can tell me what to do.” It means being released from bondage so that we can belong to Adonai and begin treating other people the way the Redeemer treated us.

Hearing means responding

Jeremiah 11 repeatedly emphasizes the Hebrew verb שָׁמַע shamaʿ (“hear, listen, heed”). Adonai says:

“Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you.”

Jer. 11:4 NASB95

This is the familiar biblical concept behind the Shema daily prayer:

“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”

Deut. 6:4 NASB95

Biblical “hearing” therefore is not merely auditory reception. It expects a response.

The Septuagint normally represents shamaʿ with ἀκούω akouō (“hear, listen”). Jeremiah 11:2 LXX begins Ἀκούσατε τοὺς λόγους τῆς διαθήκης ταύτης Akousate tous logous tēs diathēkēs tautēs (“Hear the words of this covenant”).

That makes Matthew 5:38 particularly interesting. Yeshua begins:

Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη
Ēkousate hoti errethē
“You have heard that it was said.”

The opening word Ἠκούσατε ēkousate comes from the same verb, akouō. 

So Jeremiah says in effect, “Hear the covenant and do it.” Yeshua says, “You have heard the Torah — but now understand what faithful obedience actually requires.”

Important New Testament uses of akouō include Matthew 5:21, 27, 33, 38, 43; 7:24, 26; 11:15; 13:9; Mark 12:29; Luke 8:8; John 5:24; Romans 10:17; James 1:19, 22–25; and Revelation 2–3.

Apostle Ya’akov in James 1:22–25 makes the Jeremiah-like connection explicit: hearing without doing is self-deception:

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

James 1:22 NASB95

He continues by comparing someone who hears but does not act to a person who looks in a mirror and immediately forgets what he saw. By contrast, the one who looks into “the perfect law, the law of liberty” and continues in it is “not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer” (James 1:25).

The key Greek words are ἀκροατής akroatēs (“hearer”) and ποιητής poiētēs (“doer”). James also uses poiētēs again in James 4:11 in the sense of being a “doer of the law.”

This fits remarkably well with Jeremiah 11: “Hear the words of this covenant, and do them” (Jer. 11:6). The Hebrew conceptual pair is shamaʿ and עָשָׂה ʿasah (“do”).

James expresses essentially the same covenant principle in Greek: hearing God’s word is incomplete unless it produces obedient action. He is not contrasting faith with Torah obedience. Rather, he is contrasting genuine reception of God’s word with merely listening to it and walking away unchanged.

Bottom line: In Scripture, “hearing God” is not complete until His words change what we do. Jeremiah condemns covenant hearing without covenant living, while Yeshua teaches His disciples how to become genuine hearers of Torah.

Covenant is relationship expressed through faithful action

Jeremiah 11 revolves around בְּרִית berit (“covenant”):

“Hear the words of this covenant and do them.”

Jer. 11:6

The Septuagint translates בְּרִית with διαθήκη diathēkē (“covenant”). Jeremiah 11 repeatedly uses diathēkē for Israel’s covenant with Adonai. 

This becomes one of the most important covenant words in the Apostolic Writings: Here are notable uses: Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 1:72; 22:20; Acts 3:25; 7:8; Romans 9:4; 11:27; 1Corinthians 11:25; 2Corinthians 3:6, 14; Galatians 3:15, 17; 4:24; Ephesians 2:12; Hebrews 7:22; 8:6, 8–10; 9:4, 15–17, 20; 10:16, 29; 12:24; 13:20; Revelation 11:19.

This is especially significant because Jeremiah later promises the בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה berit chadashah (“new covenant”) in Jeremiah 31:31–34.

Yet Jeremiah’s answer to covenant failure is not, “The commandments were the problem.” The problem was the heart that refused to hear.

Consequently, the New Covenant promises:

“I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.”

Jer. 31:33 NASB95

From this perspective, Matthew 5 fits naturally, particularly Matt. 5:17–19. Yeshua does not empty Torah of moral substance. He carries covenant obedience inward — from merely controlling retaliation to relinquishing vengeance itself.

Bottom line: The New Covenant does not solve Israel’s problem by removing God’s instruction. It solves the problem by transforming the people who are supposed to hear and live it.

Learn to stop grasping

Leviticus 25 begins with the land itself observing שַׁבָּת shabbat (“Sabbath/rest”).

The LXX uses both σάββατα sabbata and ἀνάπαυσις anapausis (“rest, cessation”):

σάββατα, ἀνάπαυσις ἔσται τῇ γῇ. σάββατα τῷ κυρίῳ
sabbata anapausis estai tē gē, sabbata tō kyriō
“a Sabbath, a rest, shall be for the land. A Sabbath for the Lord.” 

That is economically radical. Every seventh year Israel must stop maximizing production. The land belongs ultimately to Adonai:

“The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine.”

Lev. 25:23 NASB95

Therefore Sabbath and Jubilee train Israel against the instinct to possess, accumulate and control without limit.

That connects with Matthew 5. The person who insists on extracting the last possible payment, defending every ounce of status, and answering every insult has not learned Sabbath-like trust. Yeshua teaches a person capable of releasing claims because that person trusts God with justice and provision.

In the New Testament, anapausis appears notably in Matthew 11:29, where Yeshua promises, “you will find rest for your souls,” drawing on Jeremiah 6:16; it also appears in Matthew 12:43; Luke 11:24; Revelation 4:8; 6:11; and 14:11, 13.

Meanwhile, σάββατον sabbaton occurs extensively throughout the Gospels and Acts, including Matthew 12:1–12; 24:20; 28:1; Mark 1:21; Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 17:2; and 18:4.

Bottom line: Sabbath is partly an exercise in surrender. Leviticus teaches Israel to stop squeezing maximum productivity from land and people. Yeshua similarly teaches His disciples that they do not have to squeeze maximum retaliation or compensation out of every wrong.

Jubilee becomes a vocabulary of Messianic forgiveness

Leviticus 25:10, a verse inscribed on the Liberty Bell, contains one of the strongest bridges between Torah and the Apostolic Writings:

וּקְרָאתֶם דְּרוֹר בָּאָרֶץ
u-qeraʾtem deror baʾaretz
“you shall proclaim liberty through the land.”

The key noun is דְּרוֹר deror (“liberty, release”).

The Septuagint renders it:

διαβοήσετε ἄφεσιν
diaboēsete aphesin
“you shall proclaim release.”

Thus deror is translated as ἄφεσις aphesis. 

The Greek noun derives from ἀφίημι aphiēmi, fundamentally carrying the idea of letting something go, releasing it or sending it away.

That background illuminates the New Testament meaning of “forgiveness.” Forgiveness is not merely God changing His attitude toward someone. It is release from a liability or bondage.

Important NT occurrences of aphesis include Matthew 26:28; Mark 1:4; 3:29; Luke 1:77; 3:3; 4:18; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:22; 10:18.

Luke 4:18 is particularly striking. When Yeshua reads Isaiah 61, He declares aphesis for captives and oppressed people. Because the Greek Torah had already used aphesis repeatedly for Jubilee in Leviticus 25:10–13, 28, 30–33, the vocabulary naturally evokes release and restoration. 

The Messianic implication is profound: Jubilee provides a Torah-shaped vocabulary for what Messiah accomplishes.

• Property returns.
• Families are restored.
• Bondage ends.
• Debts cease controlling the future.
• People return home.

Then the Apostolic Writings use the same Greek word for release from sin.

Bottom line: Biblical forgiveness is Jubilee-shaped. Through Messiah, God does not merely say, “I am no longer angry.” He releases captives, cancels liability and restores people to the inheritance from which sin has alienated them.

Everyone goes home

The familiar Hebrew word for Jubilee is יוֹבֵל yovel.

Yet the LXX does something revealing. Rather than simply transliterating yovel, it repeatedly describes the Jubilee as aphesis, “release.” Leviticus 25:10–13 repeatedly speaks of the fiftieth year as an ἐνιαυτὸς ἀφέσεως eniautos apheseōs, a “year of release.” 

The defining action is:

“Each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.”

Lev. 25:10 NASB95

Two Hebrew ideas are important:

• שׁוּב shuv — “return”
• אֲחֻזָּה achuzzah — “possession, hereditary holding”

The theological picture is therefore not merely debt cancellation. Jubilee means coming home.

That becomes important in the wider biblical story. Israel repeatedly leaves inheritance through sin and exile, while the prophets repeatedly promise return.

Messianic redemption carries the same pattern. The Messiah does not merely make guilty people technically innocent. He brings exiles home to God.

Compare Luke 15’s prodigal son, Acts 3:19–21’s “restoration of all things,” Ephesians 2:12–19’s movement from alienation to household membership, and 1Peter 2:10’s movement from “not a people” to “the people of God.”

Bottom line: Jubilee answers a deeply biblical question: “How does someone who has lost everything get home again?” Messiah’s redemption is God’s ultimate answer — release followed by restoration.

The Redeemer restores what poverty has lost

Leviticus 25 introduces another major redemption word:

גָּאַל gaʾal (“redeem, act as kinsman-redeemer”).

If poverty forces an Israelite to sell inherited land, the nearest relative is to redeem it:

“Then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.”

Lev. 25:25 NASB95

The associated noun is גְּאֻלָּה geʾullah (“redemption, right of redemption”).

Here’s how the Greek Torah uses the λυτρ- lytr- family:

• λύτρα lytra — “ransom/redemption price”
• λυτρόω lytroō — “redeem, ransom”
• λύτρωσις lytrōsis — “redemption.”

Leviticus 25:24 says λύτρα δώσετε τῆς γῆς lytra dōsete tēs gēs, roughly “you shall provide redemption for the land,” while verses 25 and 48–52 repeatedly use forms of lytroō and lytrōsis. 

This vocabulary flows directly into Messianic language. Important NT examples include:

• lytroō — Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14; 1Peter 1:18.
• lytrōsis — Luke 1:68; 2:38; Hebrews 9:12.

Related λύτρον lytron (“ransom”) appears in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45:

“the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Matt. 20:28 NASB95

This does not mean that every detail of Leviticus 25 is a direct prophecy of Yeshua. Rather, Torah establishes the conceptual vocabulary by which redemption is later explained.

A redeemer is someone with both the willingness and ability to recover what another person has lost.

Bottom line: Leviticus gives “redemption” concrete meaning. Redemption means paying the cost necessary to recover a person or inheritance that otherwise cannot be recovered. That vocabulary becomes central to understanding Messiah’s work.

Covenant economics begins by seeing a person, not an opportunity

Leviticus 25 repeatedly says אָחִיךָ achikha (“your brother”):

“Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him.”

Lev. 25:35 NASB95

The LXX uses ἀδελφός adelphos (“brother”; as in Philadelphia, philia + adelphos = “City of Brotherly Love”):

ἐὰν δὲ πένηται ὁ ἀδελφός σου
ean de penētai ho adelphos
“If your brother becomes poor….” 

That repeated vocabulary changes the moral question. The vulnerable debtor is not primarily a financial instrument. He is your brother.

Consequently:

“Take no usurious interest from him.”

Lev. 25:36

Likewise, Yeshua says in the Sermon on the Mount:

“Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”

Matthew 5:42

Yeshua therefore stands squarely within Torah’s concern about what happens when another person’s vulnerability gives us economic leverage over him.

The word adelphos becomes enormously important in the NT for the covenant community: Matthew 5:22–24; 7:3–5; 12:50; 18:15, 21, 35; Acts 9:17; Romans 12:10; 14:10–15; 1 Corinthians 6:6; James 2:15; 1 John 2:9–11; 3:10–18.

Bottom line: Torah tries to prevent poverty from erasing personhood. Before someone is your debtor, employee or economic problem, that person is your brother or neighbor. Yeshua carries exactly that relational ethic into the Sermon on the Mount.

Don’t turn another person’s desperation into your profit

Leviticus 25:36 prohibits נֶשֶׁךְ neshekh (“interest/usury”) and תַּרְבִּית tarbit (“increase, profit”) from a poor brother.

The LXX renders the interest concept with τόκος tokos (“offspring,” i.e., interest on money loaned):

οὐ λήψῃ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ τόκον
ou lēmpsē par’ autou tokon
“You shall not take interest from him.” 

Lev. 25:36 LXX

The Greek word literally can relate to “offspring” or “produce” and came to denote the “offspring” produced by money — interest.

In the NT, tokos appears in the financial sense in Matthew 25:27 and Luke 19:23. But Matthew 5:42 instead uses another lending word: δανίσασθαι danisasthai, from δανείζω daneizō (“lend/borrow”):

τὸν θέλοντα ἀπὸ σοῦ δανίσασθαι μὴ ἀποστραφῇς
ton thelonta apo sou danisasthai mē apostraphēs
“Do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”

Matt. 5:42 NASB95, New Testament in Greek (Nestle-Aland 27th edition, NA27)

The LXX uses daneizō frequently for Hebrew lending vocabulary, especially לָוָה lavah (“borrow/lend”). Proverbs 19:17 is a notable example of this lexical tradition.

The word also appears in the NT in Luke 6:34–35. Luke 6:35 is particularly important because it occurs in Yeshua’s parallel teaching:“lend, expecting nothing in return.”

Thus Matthew 5:42 is not an isolated slogan about random generosity. It belongs naturally beside Torah’s concern that lending should help the vulnerable rather than trap them.

Bottom line: God does not condemn helping someone through a loan; He condemns using another person’s crisis as leverage for exploitation. Yeshua goes further by training His disciples to become people whose instinct is generosity rather than calculation.

‘Eye for eye’ is about proportional justice — not permission for revenge

In one of His “you have heard it said … I tell you” statements (often called the “six antitheses” in scholarship) in the Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua quotes Torah:

ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ καὶ ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος
ophthalmon anti ophthalmou kai odonta anti odontos
“an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” 

Matt. 5:38 NASB95, NA27

The Hebrew formula appears in Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21:

עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן
ayin tachat ayin
“eye corresponding to eye.”

The key Hebrew preposition תַּחַת tachat can mean “under,” “instead of,” “in place of” or “in exchange for.”

The LXX translates it with ἀντί anti (“against, instead of, for, in behalf of, because, on account of”¹Harris, Ralph W., Stanley M. Horton, and Gayle Garrity Seaver, eds. The Complete Biblical Library: The New Testament Greek-English Dictionary. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.2. Tulsa: Empowered Life, 1986.) We use this Greek-based prefix in English mostly to mean against, such as the well-known usage of ἀντίχριστος anti-Christos (1John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2John 1:7).

The Torah principle is fundamentally about proportionality, rather than lex talionis (“law of retribution”). It restricts punishment instead of encouraging escalation. The purpose of justice is restoration rather than vengeance. 

Yeshua therefore is not correcting a cruel Torah command. He is addressing the misuse of a judicial principle as a justification for private retaliation.

Torah says, essentially, the penalty must not exceed the injury.

Yeshua says, do not turn even that legitimate principle into an excuse for personal revenge.

This distinction matters. Courts still need justice. Victims still matter. Wrong remains wrong. But disciples must not nurture retaliatory hearts.

Bottom line: “Eye for eye” puts a ceiling on justice; Yeshua puts a brake on vengeance. These are complementary rather than contradictory principles.

Yeshua is not commanding passive cooperation with every form of evil

Yeshua says:

μὴ ἀντιστῆναι τῷ πονηρῷ
mē antistēnai tō ponērō
“do not resist an evil person”

The verb comes from ἀνθίστημι anthistēmi (“oppose, resist, stand against”).

Elsewhere the NT positively commands resistance: Romans 13:2; Galatians 2:11; Ephesians 6:13; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9; 2 Timothy 3:8; 4:15.

Apostle Ya’akov actually says:

ἀντίστητε δὲ τῷ διαβόλῳ
antistēte de tō diabolō
“resist the devil”

James 4:7 NASB95, NA27

Therefore, Yeshua in Matthew 5:39 cannot reasonably mean that every form of opposition to wickedness is prohibited. Its immediate setting is personal retaliation: insult, lawsuit, compelled labor and lending.

So, Yeshua is restoring the mercy-filled intent of Torah’s proportional-justice principle, rather than abolishing justice. 

Bottom line: Yeshua is not teaching, “Help evil succeed.” He is teaching, “Do not answer personal injury with retaliatory evil.” Biblical resistance to evil and personal renunciation of revenge can coexist.

Evil must stop with us instead of reproducing itself

Yeshua’s comment in Matthew 5:39 uses πονηρός ponēros, meaning “evil, wicked, harmful.”

The LXX regularly uses the πονηρ- poner– word family for Hebrew terms such as רַע raʿ (literally, “bad,” but potentially “evil”) and expressions describing wickedness.

That makes the ethical logic important. If another person acts with ra/poneros, the disciple must not automatically reproduce the same pattern.

Paul later states the principle almost as a commentary on Matthew 5:

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.

Rom. 12:17 NASB95

and

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Rom. 12:21 NASB95

Significant NT uses of poneros include Matthew 5:11, 37, 39, 45; 6:13, 23; 7:11, 17–18; 12:35, 39, 45; 13:19, 38, 49; John 17:15; Ephesians 6:16; 2Thessalonians 3:3; 1 John 2:13–14; 3:12; 5:18–19.

Bottom line: The kingdom response to evil is not imitation. Someone else’s wrongdoing does not give us permission to become like him.

Transform coerced service into freely chosen service

Yeshua says:

“Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”

Matthew 5:41 NASB95

The key verb is ἀγγαρεύω angareuō, “press into compulsory service.” It is a Persian-derived administrative term rather than a typical Greek translation of a Hebrew Torah verb. In the New Testament it occurs only three times: Matthew 5:41; 27:32; Mark 15:21. 

Later in the Gospel accounts, Roman authority compels Simon of Cyrene to carry Yeshua’s execution stake. Thus the vocabulary of coerced service appears both in Yeshua’s teaching and in His passion narrative.

The point of the “second mile” is not that coercion suddenly becomes righteous. Rather, the disciple refuses to let the oppressor exercise sovereignty over his inner life. What begins as forced service can become an act freely given.

Bottom line: The oppressor may control the first mile, but he does not have to control the disciple’s heart. Yeshua teaches a freedom deeper than circumstances — the freedom to choose goodness even when another person behaves unjustly.

‘Give to him who asks’: Yeshua’s words sound much more like the Torah

Yeshua’s instruction Matthew 5:42 is sometimes treated as an isolated command:

“Give to him who asks of you.”

But Leviticus 25 supplies the economic context needed to hear it biblically. The Torah says that when a brother becomes poor, Israel must:

• Support him.
• Allow him to live alongside the community.
• Refuse exploitative interest.
• Remember that Israel itself exists only because Adonai rescued the nation from Egypt.

Matthew in this verse uses δίδωμι didōmi (“give”), one of the Greek Bible’s standard equivalents for Hebrew נָתַן natan (“give”). That verb saturates Scripture because biblical theology constantly emphasizes giving:

• Adonai gives the land.
• He gives blessing.
• Israel must give to the poor.
• Ultimately God gives His Son.

Notable other NT examples of didōmi include Matthew 6:11; 7:7, 11; 10:8; 19:21; 20:28; John 3:16; 6:32–33; 10:28; Acts 20:35; Romans 8:32; Ephesians 4:7–8; James 1:5, 17.

Consequently, generosity becomes an imitation of God’s own character.

Bottom line: Yeshua’s command to give does not appear out of nowhere. It grows from Torah’s insistence that redeemed people must keep poverty from becoming a mechanism of exploitation.

Jeremiah warns: Knowing covenant words is useless if the heart refuses the covenant

Jeremiah 11 is what prevents Leviticus 25 from becoming merely an interesting social ideal:

• Judah possessed Torah.
• Judah knew the covenant.
• Judah had received the land.

Yet possession of those privileges did not equal covenant faithfulness.

The chapter repeatedly links hearing with doing. The LXX expresses שָׁמַע shamaʿ (“hear,” “comply”) + עָשָׂה ʿasah (“do,” “make”) with ἀκούω akouō (“hear”) and ποιέω poieō (“do”). 

This pair appears throughout the Apostolic Writings. Yeshua concludes the Sermon on the Mount:

“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man.”

Matt. 7:24 NASB95

Apostle Ya’akov similarly contrasts a hearer with a doer in James 1:22–25.

Bottom line: The Bible never treats accurate doctrine as an acceptable substitute for obedience. The true test of whether we have “heard” Torah or Messiah is what happens when another person costs us money, status, convenience or pride.

Yeshua embodies the Jubilee He announces

When these passages are read together, a larger pattern emerges:

• Leviticus 25: release the indebted, restore inheritance, protect the poor and bring people home.
• Jeremiah 11: Israel repeatedly fails to embody that covenant.
  • The Prophets generally: promise restoration and eventually a transformed covenant heart.
• Yeshua: announces good news, release and restoration (Luke 4:16–21, quoting Isaiah 61:1) — and then teaches His followers to live according to the same divine generosity.

The Hebrew and Greek words used strengthen these connections:

• דְּרוֹר deror (“release”) → ἄφεσις aphesis (“release”) → forgiveness/release in Messiah.
• גָּאַל gaʾal (“redeem”) → λυτρόω lytroō (“redeem”) → Messiah gives Himself as the ransom.
• בְּרִית berit (“covenant”) → διαθήκη diathēkē (“covenant”) → Messiah and the Spirit make the New Covenant of heart-lived Torah possible.

These are not merely coincidental English similarities. The Greek vocabulary of the Septuagint becomes part of the vocabulary the Apostolic Writings use to explain Yeshua’s mission. Leviticus 25 LXX itself repeatedly uses aphesis for Jubilee and the lytr– family for redemption. 

Bottom line: The Torah gives us the grammar of redemption. Jubilee explains release, the kinsman-redeemer explains redemption, Exodus explains deliverance, Jeremiah explains why the human heart needs transformation, and Yeshua brings those patterns together in His mission.

Forgiven people become releasing people

“he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Luke 7:47 NASB95, context Luke 7:36–50

There is one more thread tying the three readings together.

Adonai through Moshe in Leviticus 25 repeatedly commands people to release their grip:

• On the land.
• On perpetual debt.
• On another person’s poverty.
• On economic domination.

Jeremiah 11 says Israel failed because its heart would not submit to covenant instruction.

Yeshua in Matthew 5 then commands the disciple to release his grip:

• On retaliation.
• On personal vindication.
• on property when generosity is called for,
• on resentment over compelled service,
• and on the instinct to refuse the needy borrower.

That makes Yeshua’s later language about forgiveness even more understandable. The disciple who has received aphesis from God must become a person capable of letting go.

This does not mean abolishing justice. A complete understanding of “eye for eye” correctly highlights the distinction: biblical justice establishes proportional accountability, while personal revenge seeks repayment for wounded pride. Yeshua attacks the latter, not the former. 

Indeed, Messiah models the teaching Himself. He is insulted without returning insult, stripped of His garment, compelled through Roman authority’s violence, and yet gives Himself willingly.

Bottom line: Jubilee ultimately teaches a way of life: because God has released us, we must stop building our lives around keeping other people indebted to us — financially, emotionally or spiritually.

Vital vocab at a glance

Hebrew & Greek	Meaning	LXX & Hebrew	NT verses
שַׁבָּת shabbat	Sabbath, cessation	σάββατον sabbaton; Lev. 25:2–6	Matt. 12:1–12; Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14, 42–44; 17:2
נוּחַ nuakh	rest, cease	ἀνάπαυσις anapausis in Lev. 25:4–5	Matt. 11:29; 12:43; Luke 11:24; Rev. 6:11; 14:13
דְּרוֹר deror	liberty, release	ἄφεσις aphesis, Lev. 25:10	Mark 1:4; Luke 4:18; 24:47; Acts 2:38; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 10:18
יוֹבֵל yovel	Jubilee	expressed by ἄφεσις in Lev. 25 LXX	Jubilee imagery particularly illuminates Luke 4:18–19
גָּאַל gaʾal	redeem as kinsman	λυτρόω lytroō	Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14; 1Pet. 1:18
גְּאֻלָּה — geʾullah	redemption	λύτρα lytra, λύτρωσις lytrōsis	Luke 1:68; 2:38; Heb. 9:12; cf. Matt. 20:28
אָח — ach	brother	ἀδελφός adelphos	Matt. 5:22–24; 18:15; Rom. 12:10; James 2:15; 1Jn. 3:16–18
נֶשֶׁךְ — neshekh	interest/usury	τόκος tokos	Matt. 25:27; Luke 19:23
לָוָה — lavah	borrow/lend	δανείζω daneizō	Matt. 5:42; Luke 6:34–35
בְּרִית — berit	covenant	διαθήκη diathēkē	Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1Cor. 11:25; Heb. 8–10
שָׁמַע — shamaʿ	hear, heed	ἀκούω akouō	Matt. 5:38; 7:24; Mark 12:29; Rom. 10:17; James 1:22
עָשָׂה — ʿasah	do, make	ποιέω poieō	Matt. 5:19; 7:21, 24; James 1:22
עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן ayin tachat ayin	eye corresponding to eye	ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ	Matt. 5:38
רַע raʿ	evil	often πονηρός ponēros	Matt. 5:39, 45; 6:13; Eph. 6:16; 1Jn. 5:19
ἀνθίστημι anthistēmi	resist, oppose	LXX opposition vocabulary	Matt. 5:39; Rom. 13:2; Eph. 6:13; James 4:7; 1Pet. 5:9
ἀγγαρεύω angareuō	compel into service	Persian-derived term	Matt. 5:41; 27:32; Mark 15:21
δίδωμι didōmi	give	commonly translates נָתַן natan	Matt. 5:42; 7:11; John 3:16; Acts 20:35
δανείζω daneizō	lend/borrow	chiefly represents Hebrew lending vocabulary such as לוה lavah	Matt. 5:42; Luke 6:34–35

The central movement through Scripture could therefore be summarized this way: Exodus → covenant → Sabbath → Jubilee → redemption → release → generosity → Messiah.

Adonai rescued Israel from slavery so that Israel would not reproduce Egypt among its own people. Leviticus 25 turns that principle into land, lending and poverty laws. Jeremiah 11 warns that merely possessing those commandments accomplishes nothing when hearts refuse to hear. Then Yeshua brings the same ethic into daily conflict: do not convert justice into vengeance, power into domination or another person’s need into an opportunity for advantage.

And the deepest Messianic connection lies in aphesis. The Greek Torah uses it for the great Jubilee release. The Apostolic Writings use it for the forgiveness/release of sins accomplished through Messiah. What Jubilee did socially and economically in miniature — freeing, restoring and bringing people back to their inheritance — provides a remarkably concrete biblical picture of what God’s redemption ultimately does through Yeshua. 

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