Leviticus 25

1 And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

And the Lord spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying:

2 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land which I will give you, let the land keep 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 put seed into your land, and for six years give care to your vines and get in the produce of them;

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 let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or have your vines cut.

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 That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off; let it be a year of rest for the land.

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 And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and your man-servant and your woman-servant and those working for payment, and for those of another country who are living among 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 cattle and the beasts on the land; all the natural increase of the land will be for food.

all that grows on its own shall provide food for your beasts and cattle.

8 And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you, seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of years, that is 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 let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin let the horn be sounded through all 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 And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee, and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family.

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 Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for 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 the Jubilee, and it is holy to you; your food will be the natural increase of the field.

due to the sanctification of the Jubilee. But you shall eat them as they present themselves.

13 In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his heritage.

In the year of the Jubilee, all shall return to their possessions.

14 And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another.

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 Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and the number of times the earth has given her produce.

and he shall sell to you according to the computation of the produce.

16 If the number of years is great, the price will be increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years which the man is giving you.

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 And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; 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 So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you will be safe in your 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 And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food in full measure and be safe 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 And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase

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 Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will give fruit enough for three years.

I will give my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall yield the produce of three years.

22 And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year is ready.

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 No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time.

Also, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is mine, and you are newcomers and settlers to me.

24 Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have the right of getting it back.

Therefore, every region of your possession shall be sold under the condition of redemption.

25 If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get back that which his brother has given up.

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 And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back;

But if he has no near relative, and he himself is able to find the price to redeem it,

27 Then let him take into account the years from the time when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the years to him who took it, and so get back 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 is not able to get it back for himself, then it will be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee; and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will have his property again.

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 And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money, he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after he has given it up.

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 And if he does not get it back by the end of the year, then the house in the town will become the property of him who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever; it will not go from him in the year of 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 small unwalled towns will be the same as property in the country; they may be got back, and they will go back to their owners in the year of 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 But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got back by the Levites at any time.

The buildings of the Levites, which are in the cities, are always able to be redeemed.

33 And if a Levite does not give money to get back his property, his house in the town which was exchanged for money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among the children of Israel.

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 land on the outskirts of their towns may not be exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever.

But let not their suburbs be sold, for it is an everlasting possession.

35 And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping him as you would a man from another country who is living 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 Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living 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 Do not take interest on the money which you let him have or on the food which you give him.

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 took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might 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 And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property;

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 But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till 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 will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family 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 For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another.

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 Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you.

Do not afflict him by power, but be fearful of your God.

44 But you may get servants as property from among the nations round about; from them you may take men-servants and women-servants.

Let your male and female servants be from the nations which are all around you,

45 And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be 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 And they will be your children's heritage after you, to keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever; but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the children of Israel.

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 And if one from another nation living among you gets wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to one of his family;

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 After he has given himself he has the right to be made free, for a price, by one of his brothers,

after the sale, he is able to be redeemed. Whoever is willing among his brothers shall redeem him:

49 Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother, or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make himself free.

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 And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant.

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 there is still a long time, he will give back, on account of it, a part of the price which was given for him.

If there will have been many years which remain until the Jubilee, according to these shall he also repay the price.

52 And if there is only a short time, he will take account of it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he will give back the price of making him free.

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 And he will be with him as a servant working for payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him before your eyes.

his wages being charged by what served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight.

54 And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

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 children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I took 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.