Leviticus 25
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses in the mount Sina, saying,
The Lord told Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, Whensoever ye shall have entered into the land, which I give to you, then the land shall rest which I give to you, for its sabbaths to the Lord.
“Tell the Israelites: When you enter the land that I'm giving you, the land itself must also observe a Sabbath rest in honor of the Lord.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shall prune thy vine, and gather in its fruit.
Six years you can cultivate your fields, take care of your vineyards, and harvest your crops.
4 But in the seventh year [shall be] a sabbath, it shall be a rest to the land, a sabbath to the Lord: thou shalt not sow thy field, and thou shalt not prune thy vine.
But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath in honor of the Lord. Don't plant your fields or care for your vineyards.
5 And thou shalt not gather the spontaneous produce of thy field, and thou shalt not gather fully the grapes of thy dedication: it shall be a year of rest to the land.
Don't harvest what may have grown up in your fields, or collect the grapes from your vineyards that you haven't cared for. The land is to have a year of complete rest.
6 And the sabbaths of the land shall be food for thee, and for thy man-servant, and for thy maid-servant, and thy hireling, and the stranger that abides with thee.
You can eat whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year. This applies to yourself, your male and female slaves, paid workers and foreigners who live with you,
7 And for thy cattle, and for the wild beats that are in thy land, shall every fruit of it be for food.
and to your livestock and the wild animals living in your land. Whatever grows can be used for food.
8 And thou shalt reckon to thyself seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and they shall be to thee seven weeks of years, nine and forty years.
Count seven ‘sabbaths’ of years, in other words, seven times seven years, so that the seven sabbaths of years come to forty-nine years.
9 In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall make a proclamation with the sound of a trumpet in all your land; on the day of atonement ye shall make a proclamation with a trumpet in all your land.
Then blow the trumpet all through the country on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement. Make sure this signal is heard throughout your whole country.
10 And ye shall sanctify the year, the fiftieth year, and ye shall proclaim a release upon the land to all that inhabit it; it shall be given a year of release, a jubilee for you; and each one shall depart to his possession, and ye shall go each to his family.
You are to dedicate the fiftieth year and announce freedom everywhere in the country for all who live there. This is to be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to reclaim your property and to be part of your family once more.
11 This is a jubilee of release, the year shall be to you the fiftieth year: ye shall not sow, nor reap the produce that comes of itself from the land, neither shall ye gather its dedicated fruits.
The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. Don't sow the land; don't harvest what may have grown up in your fields, or collect the grapes from your vineyards that you haven't cared for.
12 For it is a jubilee of release; it shall be holy to you, ye shall eat its fruits off the fields.
It is a Jubilee and it is to be holy to you. You can eat whatever the land produces.
13 In the year of the release [even] the jubilee of it, shall [each] one return to his possession.
In this Jubilee Year, every one of you shall return to your own property.
14 And if thou shouldest sell a possession to thy neighbour, or if thou shouldest buy of thy neighbour, let not a man oppress his neighbour.
If you sell land to your neighbor, or buy land from him, don't exploit one another.
15 According to the number of years after the jubilee shalt thou buy of thy neighbour, according to the number of years of the fruits shall he sell to thee.
When you buy from your neighbor work out how many years have passed since the last Jubilee, for he is to sell to you depending on how many years of harvest remain.
16 According as [there may be] a greater number of years he shall increase [the value of] his possession, and according as [there may be] a less number of years he shall lessen [the value of] his possession; for according to the number of his crops, so shall he sell to thee.
The more years that are left, the more you shall pay; the fewer years that are left, the less you shall pay, because he is actually selling you a specific number of harvests.
17 Let not a man oppress his neighbour, and thou shalt fear the Lord thy God: I am the Lord thy God.
Don't exploit one another, but have respect for your God, because I am the Lord your God.
18 And ye shall keep all my ordinances, and all my judgments; and do ye observe them, and ye shall keep them, and dwell securely in the land.
Keep my rules and observe my regulations, so you can live in safety in the land.
19 And the land shall yield her increase, and ye shall eat to fullness, and shall dwell securely in it.
Then the land will produce good harvest, so you will have plenty to eat and live in safety there.
20 And if ye should say, What shall we eat in this seventh year, if we do not sow nor gather in our fruits?
But if you ask, ‘What are we going to in the seventh year if we do not sow or harvest our crops?’
21 Then will I send my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and the land shall produce its fruits for three years.
I will bless you in the sixth year, so that the land will produce a crop that will be enough for three years.
22 And ye shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old fruits till the ninth year: until its fruit come, ye shall eat old fruits of the old.
As you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from that harvest, which will last until your harvest in the ninth year.
23 And the land shall not be sold for a permanence; for the land is mine, because ye are strangers and sojourners before me.
Land must not be permanently sold, because it really belongs to me. To me you are only foreigners and travelers passing through.
24 And in every land of your possession, ye shall allow ransoms for the land.
So whatever land you buy to own, you must make arrangements so it can be returned to its original owner.
25 And if thy brother who is with thee be poor, and should have sold [part] of his possession, and his kinsman who is nigh to him come, then he shall redeem the possession which his brother has sold.
If one of your people becomes poor and sells you some of their land, their close family can come and buy back what they have sold.
26 And if one have no near kinsman, and he prosper with his hand, and he find sufficient money, [even] his ransom;
However, if they don't have anyone who can buy it back, but in the meantime their financial situation improves and they have enough to buy back the land,
27 then shall he calculate the years of his sale, and he shall give what is due to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his possession.
they will work how many years it has been since the sale, and pay back the balance to the person who bought it, and go back to their property
28 But if his hand have not prospered sufficiently, so as that he should restore the money to him, then he that bought the possessions shall have them till the sixth year of the release; and it shall go out in the release, and the owner shall return to his possession.
If they can't raise enough to pay the person back for the land, the buyer will remain its owner until the Jubilee Year. But in the Jubilee the land will be returned so that the original owner can so that they can go back to their property.
29 And if any one should sell an inhabited house in a walled city, then there shall be the ransom of it, until [the time] is fulfilled: its time of ransom shall be a full year.
If someone sells a house located in a walled town, they have the right to buy it back for a full year after selling it. It can be bought back any time during that year.
30 And if it be not ransomed until there be completed of its time a full year, the house which is in the walled city shall be surely confirmed to him that bought it, throughout his generations; and it shall not go out in the release.
If it isn't bought back be the end of a full year, then ownership of the house in the walled town is permanently transferred to the one who bought it and their descendants. It won't be returned in the Jubilee.
31 But the houses in the villages which have not a wall round about them, shall be reckoned as the fields of the country: they shall always be redeemable, and they shall go out in the release.
But houses in villages that don't have walls around them are to be treated as located in the fields. They can be bought back, and will be returned in the Jubilee.
32 And the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities in their possession, shall be always redeemable to the Levites.
However, the Levites always have the right to buy back their houses in the towns that belong to them.
33 And if any one shall redeem a house of the Levites, then shall their sale of the houses of their possession go out in the release; because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the children of Israel.
Whatever the Levites own can be bought back, even houses sold in their towns, and must be returned in the Jubilee. That's because the houses in the towns of the Levites are what they were given to own as their share among the Israelites.
34 And the lands set apart for their cities shall not be sold, because this is their perpetual possession.
However, the fields surrounding their towns must not be sold because they belong to the Levites permanently.
35 And if thy brother who is with thee become poor, and he fail in resources with thee, thou shalt help him as a stranger and a sojourner, and thy brother shall live with thee.
If any of your people become poor and can't survive, you must help them in the same way you would help a foreigner or a stranger, so that they can go on living in your neighborhood.
36 Thou shalt not receive from him interest, nor increase: and thou shalt fear thy God: I [am] the Lord: and thy brother shall live with thee.
Don't make them pay you any interest or demand more than they borrowed, but respect your God so that they can remain living in your area.
37 Thou shalt not lend thy money to him at interest, and thou shalt not lend thy meat to him to be returned with increase.
Don't lend them silver with interest or sell them food at an inflated price.
38 I [am] the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Chanaan, so as to be your God.
Remember, I am the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 And if thy brother by thee be lowered, and be sold to thee, he shall not serve thee with the servitude of a slave.
If any of your people become poor and have to sell themselves to work for you, don't force them to work as a slave.
40 He shall be with thee as a hireling or a sojourner, he shall work for thee till the year of release:
Have them live with you like a paid worker who is staying with you for a while. They are to work for you until the Jubilee Year.
41 and he shall go out in the release, and his children with him; and he shall go to his family, he shall hasten back to his patrimony.
Then they and their children must be freed, and they can go back to their family and to their family's property.
42 Because these are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; such an one shall not be sold as a [common] servant.
Israelites are not to be sold as slaves because they belong to me as my slaves—I led them out of Egypt.
43 Thou shalt not oppress him with labour, and shalt fear the Lord thy God.
Don't treat them with brutality. Have respect for your God.
44 And whatever number of men-servants and maid-servants thou shalt have, thou shalt purchase male and female servants from the nations that are round about thee.
Buy your male and female slaves from the surrounding nations.
45 And of the sons of the sojourners that are among you, of these ye shall buy and of their relations, all that shall be in your lands; let them be to you for a possession.
You can also buy them from foreigners who have come to live among you, or from their descendants born in your land. You can treat them as your property.
46 And ye shall distribute them to your children after you, and they shall be to you permanent possessions for ever: but of your brethren the children of Israel, one shall not oppress his brother in labours.
You can pass them on to your children to inherit as property after you die. You can make them slaves for life, but you must not brutally treat any of your own people, the Israelites, as a slave.
47 And if a stranger or sojourner with thee wax rich, and thy brother in distress be sold to the stranger or the sojourner that is with thee, or to a proselyte by extraction;
If a foreigner among you becomes successful, and one of your people living nearby becomes poor and sells themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner's family,
48 after he is sold to him there shall be redemption for him, one of his brethren shall redeem him.
they still have the right of being bought back after the sale. A member of their family can buy them back—
49 A brother of his father, or a son of his father's brother shall redeem him; or let one of his near kin of his tribe redeem him, and if he should be rich and redeem himself,
an uncle or cousin or any close relative from their family can buy them back. If they become successful, they can buy themselves back.
50 then shall he calculate with his purchaser from the year that he sold himself to him until the year of release: and the money of his purchase shall be as that of a hireling, he shall be with him from year to year.
The person concerned and their buyer will work out the time from the year of the sale up to the Jubilee Year. The price will depend on the number of years, calculated using the daily rate for a paid worker.
51 And if any have a greater number of years [than enough], according to these he shall pay his ransom out of his purchase-money.
If there are many years left, they must pay a larger percentage of the purchase price.
52 And if but a little time be left of the years to the year of release, then shall he reckon to him according to his years, and shall pay his ransom
If there are only a few years remaining before the Jubilee Year, then they only have to pay a percentage depending on the number of years still left.
53 as a hireling; he shall be with him from year to year; thou shalt not oppress him with labour before thee.
They are to live with their foreign owner just like a paid worker, hired from year to year, but see to it that the owner doesn't treat him brutally.
54 And if he do not pay his ransom accordingly, he shall go out in the year of his release, he and his children with him.
If they are not bought back in any of the ways described, they and their children shall be freed in the Jubilee Year.
55 For the children of Israel are my servants: they are my attendants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.
For the Israelites belong to me as my slaves. They are my slaves—I led them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
