Leviticus 25

1 Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

Yahweh 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 people of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I give you, then the land must be made to keep a Sabbath for Yahweh.

3 For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

You must plant your field for six years, and for six years you must prune your vineyard and gather the produce.

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, a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land must be observed, a Sabbath for Yahweh. You must not plant your field or prune 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.

You must not conduct an organized harvest of whatever grows by itself, and you must not conduct an organized harvest of whatever grapes grow on your unpruned vines. This will be a year of solemn 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,

Whatever the unworked land grows during the Sabbath year will be food for you. You, your male and female servants, your hired servants and the foreigners who live with you may gather food,

7 and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.

and your livestock and also wild animals may eat whatever the land produces.

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 must count off seven Sabbaths of years, that is, seven times seven years, so that there will be seven Sabbaths of years, totaling 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.

Then you must blow a loud trumpet everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you must blow a trumpet 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.

You must set apart the fiftieth year to Yahweh and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee for you, in which property and slaves must be returned to their families.

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.

The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. You must not plant or conduct an organized harvest. Eat whatever grows by itself, and gather the grapes that grow on the unpruned vines.

12 For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.

For it is a Jubilee, which will be holy for you. You must eat the produce that grows by itself out of the fields.

13 In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

You must return everyone to his own property in this year of Jubilee.

14 If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

If you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any land from your neighbor, you must not cheat or wrong each other.

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.

If you buy land from your neighbor, consider the number of years and crops that can be harvested until the next Jubilee. Your neighbor selling the land must consider that also.

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.

A larger number of years until the next Jubilee will increase the value of land, and a smaller number of years until the next Jubilee will decrease the value, because the number of harvests the land will produce for the new owner is related to the number of years before the next Jubilee.

17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

You must not cheat or wrong one another; instead, you must honor your God, for I am Yahweh your God.

18 You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.

Therefore you must obey my decrees, keep my laws, and carry them out. Then you will live in the land in safety.

19 Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

The land will yield its produce, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.

20 Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’

You might say, “What will we eat during the seventh year? Look, we cannot plant or 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 command my blessing to come upon you in the sixth year, and it will produce harvest enough for 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.

You will plant in the eighth year and continue to eat from the previous years' produce and the stored food. Until the harvest of the ninth year comes in, you will be able to eat from the provisions stored in the previous years.

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

The land must not be sold to a new permanent owner, because the land is mine. You are all foreigners and temporary residents on my land.

24 Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

You must observe the right of redemption for all the land that you acquire; you must allow the land to be bought back by the family from whom you bought it.

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 fellow Israelite became poor and for that reason sold some of his property, then his nearest relative may come and buy back the property that he sold to you.

26 Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,

If a man has no relative to redeem his property, but if he has prospered and has the ability 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.

then he may calculate the years since the land was sold and repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it. Then he may return to his own property.

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 he is not able to get the land back for himself, then the land he has sold will remain in the ownership of the one who bought it until the year of Jubilee. At the year of Jubilee, the land will be returned to the man who sold it, and the original owner will return to his property.

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.

If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may buy it back within a whole year after it was sold. For a full year he will have the right of redemption.

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 the house is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city will become the permanent property of the buyer and his descendants. It is not to be returned in the year of 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 the houses of the villages that have no wall around them will be considered as the field of the land. They may be redeemed, and they must be returned during the year of Jubilee.

32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.

However, the houses owned by the Levites in their cities may be redeemed at any time.

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 one of the Levites does not redeem a house he sold, then the house that was sold in the city where it is located must be returned in the year of Jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property among the people of Israel.

34 But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.

But the fields around their cities may not be sold because they are the permanent property of the Levites.

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 fellow countryman becomes poor, so that he can no longer provide for himself, then you must help him as you would help a foreigner or anyone else living as an outsider among you.

36 Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

Do not charge him interest or try to profit from him in any way, but honor your God so that your brother may keep living with you.

37 You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.

You must not give him a loan of money and charge interest, nor sell him your food to earn a profit.

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 Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, in order that I might give you the land of Canaan, and that I might 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 fellow countryman has become poor and sells himself to you, you must not make him work like a slave.

40 Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

Treat him as a hired servant. He must be like someone living temporarily with you. He will serve with you until the year of 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.

Then he will go away from you, he and his children with him, and he will return to his own family and to his fathers' property.

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 they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They will not be sold as slaves.

43 You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

You must not rule over them harshly, but you must honor your God.

44 Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.

As for your male and female slaves, whom you can obtain from the nations who live around you, you may buy slaves from them.

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.

You may also buy slaves from the foreigners who are living among you, that is, from their families who are with you, children who have been born in your land. They may become your property.

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.

You may provide such slaves as an inheritance for your children after you, to hold as property, and make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your brothers among the people of Israel with harshness.

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 a foreigner or someone living temporarily with you has become wealthy, and if one of your fellow Israelites has become poor and sells himself to that foreigner, or to someone in a foreigner's family,

48 he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:

after your fellow Israelite has been bought, he may be bought back. Someone in his family may 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.

It might be the person's uncle, or his uncle's son, who redeems him, or anyone who is his close relative from his family. Or, if he has become prosperous, he may 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.

He must bargain with the man who bought him; they must count the years from the year he sold himself to his purchaser until the year of Jubilee. The price of his redemption must be figured in keeping with the rate paid to a hired servant, for the number of years he might continue to work for the one who bought him.

51 If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.

If there are still many years until the year of Jubilee, he must pay back as the price for his redemption an amount of money that is in proportion to the number of those years.

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 there are only a few years to the year of Jubilee, then he must bargain with his purchaser to reflect the number of years left before the year of Jubilee, and he must pay for his redemption in keeping with the number of 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.

He is to be treated like a man hired year by year. You must make sure he is not treated with harshness.

54 Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.

If he is not redeemed by these means, then he must serve until the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

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.

To me the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.'”