Leviticus 25
1 Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
And the Lord spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying:
2 “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.
Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you will have entered into the land which I will give to you, rest on the Sabbath of the Lord.
3 For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.
For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall care for your vineyard, and you shall gather its fruits.
4 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.
But in the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath of the land, a resting of the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not care for your vineyard.
5 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.
What the soil shall spontaneously produce, you shall not harvest. And you shall not gather the grapes of the first-fruits as a crop. For it is a year of rest for the land.
6 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,
But these shall be yours for food, for you and for your men and women servants, and for your hired hands, and for the newcomers who sojourn with you:
7 and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.
all that grows on its own shall provide food for your beasts and cattle.
8 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.
You shall also number for yourselves seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven, which together makes forty-nine years.
9 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.
And you shall sound the trumpet in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, at the time of the atonement, throughout all your land.
10 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.
And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a remission for all the inhabitants of your land: for the same is the Jubilee. A man shall return to his possession, and each one shall go back to his original family,
11 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 the Jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows in the field of its own accord, and you shall not gather the first-fruits of the crop,
12 For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.
due to the sanctification of the Jubilee. But you shall eat them as they present themselves.
13 In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.
In the year of the Jubilee, all shall return to their possessions.
14 If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
When you will sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy anything from him, do not cause your brother grief, but buy from him according to the number of years from the Jubilee,
15 You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the last Jubilee; he is to sell to you according to the number of harvest years remaining.
and he shall sell to you according to the computation of the produce.
16 You shall increase the price in proportion to a greater number of years, or decrease it in proportion to a lesser number of years; for he is selling you a given number of harvests.
The more years that will remain after the Jubilee, the more the price shall increase, and the less the time is numbered, so much less shall the purchase price be. For he will sell to you the time for the produce.
17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
Do not be willing to afflict your countrymen, but let each one fear his God. For I am the Lord your God.
18 You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.
Accomplish my precepts, and observe my judgments, and complete them, so that you may be able to live in the land without any fear,
19 Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.
and so that the soil may produce its fruits for you, from which you may eat, even to fullness, dreading violence by no one.
20 Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’
But if you will say: What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and do not gather our produce?
21 But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.
I will give my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall yield the produce of three years.
22 While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.
And in the eighth year you shall sow, but you shall eat from the old produce, until the ninth year, until what is new matures, you shall eat what is old.
23 The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
Also, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is mine, and you are newcomers and settlers to me.
24 Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
Therefore, every region of your possession shall be sold under the condition of redemption.
25 If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.
If your brother, being in need, will have sold his little possession and his close relative is willing, he is able to redeem what he had sold.
26 Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,
But if he has no near relative, and he himself is able to find the price to redeem it,
27 he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property.
the produce shall be calculated from that time when he sold it. And what is lacking, he shall repay to the buyer, and so he shall receive his possession.
28 But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.
But if his hand will not have discovered a way to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the Jubilee. For in that year all that has been sold shall return to the owner, and to the original possessor.
29 If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains his right of redemption until a full year after its sale; during that year it may be redeemed.
Whoever will have sold a house within the walls of a city shall have the freedom to redeem it, until one year has been completed.
30 If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its buyer and his descendants. It is not to be released in the Jubilee.
If he has not redeemed it, and the year will have turned full circle, the buyer and his posterity shall possess it, in perpetuity, and it is not able to be redeemed, even in the Jubilee.
31 But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
But if the house is in a village, which has no walls, it shall be sold by the law of the fields. If it has not been redeemed beforehand, then in the Jubilee it shall return to the owner.
32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.
The buildings of the Levites, which are in the cities, are always able to be redeemed.
33 So whatever belongs to the Levites may be redeemed—a house sold in a city they possess—and must be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites.
If they have not been redeemed, then in the Jubilee they shall return to the owners, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possession among the sons of Israel.
34 But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.
But let not their suburbs be sold, for it is an everlasting possession.
35 Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
If your brother has become impoverished, or infirm of hand, and you take him in, like a newcomer or a sojourner, and he lives with you,
36 Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
do not accept usury from him, nor anything more than what you gave. Fear your God, so that your brother may be able to live with you.
37 You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
You shall not give him your money by usury, nor exact from him an overabundance of produce.
38 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.
I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, so that I might give to you the land of Canaan, and so that I may be your God.
39 If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
If your brother, having been compelled by poverty, will have sold himself to you, you shall not oppress him with the servitude of indentured servants.
40 Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
But he shall be like a hired hand or a settler; he shall work with you, until the year of the Jubilee.
41 Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.
And after that, he shall depart with his children, and he shall return to his kindred, to the possession of his fathers.
42 Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.
For these are my servants, and I led them away from the land of Egypt; let them not be sold into the condition of servitude.
43 You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
Do not afflict him by power, but be fearful of your God.
44 Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.
Let your male and female servants be from the nations which are all around you,
45 You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land. These may become your property.
and from the newcomers who sojourn with you, or who have been born from them in your land. These you shall have as servants,
46 You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.
and, by the right of inheritance, you shall transmit them to your posterity, and you shall possess them forever. But do not oppress your brothers, the sons of Israel, by power.
47 If a foreigner residing among you prospers, but your countryman dwelling near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner or to a member of his clan,
If the hand of a newcomer or a sojourner will have grown strong among you, and your brother, having become impoverished, will have sold himself to him, or to any of his stock,
48 he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:
after the sale, he is able to be redeemed. Whoever is willing among his brothers shall redeem him:
49 either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
either the paternal uncle, or the paternal uncle’s son, or his close relative, by blood or by affinity. But if he himself will be able also, he shall redeem himself,
50 He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.
considering only the years from the time of his selling until the year of the Jubilee, and calculating the money for which he was sold, according to the number of years and the accounting of a hired hand.
51 If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.
If there will have been many years which remain until the Jubilee, according to these shall he also repay the price.
52 If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to calculate and pay his redemption according to his remaining years.
If few, he shall determine the accounting with him according to the number of years, and he shall repay to the buyer by what is left remaining of the years;
53 He shall be treated like a man hired from year to year, but a foreign owner must not rule over him harshly in your sight.
his wages being charged by what served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight.
54 Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.
But if, by these means, he will not be able to be redeemed, then in the year of the Jubilee he shall depart with his children.
55 For the Israelites are My servants. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
For they are my servants, the sons of Israel, whom I led away from the land of Egypt.
