< Leviticus 25 >

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying:
And the LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 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.
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the LORD.
3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall care for your vineyard, and you shall gather its fruits.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 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.
But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
5 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.
That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your vine undressed: for it is a year of rest to the land.
6 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:
And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for you, and for your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger that sojourns with you.
7 all that grows on its own shall provide food for your beasts and cattle.
And for your cattle, and for the beast that are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 You shall also number for yourselves seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven, which together makes forty-nine years.
And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty and nine years.
9 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.
Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10 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,
And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.
11 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,
A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of your vine undressed.
12 due to the sanctification of the Jubilee. But you shall eat them as they present themselves.
For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13 In the year of the Jubilee, all shall return to their possessions.
In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man to his possession.
14 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,
And if you sell something to your neighbor, or buy something of your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another:
15 and he shall sell to you according to the computation of the produce.
According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to you:
16 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.
According to the multitude of years you shall increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years you shall diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell to you.
17 Do not be willing to afflict your countrymen, but let each one fear his God. For I am the Lord your God.
You shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am the LORD your God.
18 Accomplish my precepts, and observe my judgments, and complete them, so that you may be able to live in the land without any fear,
Why you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
19 and so that the soil may produce its fruits for you, from which you may eat, even to fullness, dreading violence by no one.
And the land shall yield her fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20 But if you will say: What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and do not gather our produce?
And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
21 I will give my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall yield the produce of three years.
Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22 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.
And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in you shall eat of the old store.
23 Also, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is mine, and you are newcomers and settlers to me.
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me.
24 Therefore, every region of your possession shall be sold under the condition of redemption.
And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25 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.
If your brother be waxen poor, and has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
26 But if he has no near relative, and he himself is able to find the price to redeem it,
And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;
27 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.
Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it; that he may return to his possession.
28 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.
But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.
29 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.
And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.
30 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.
And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.
31 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.
But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
32 The buildings of the Levites, which are in the cities, are always able to be redeemed.
Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
33 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.
And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34 But let not their suburbs be sold, for it is an everlasting possession.
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35 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,
And if your brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with you; then you shall relieve him: yes, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with you.
36 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.
Take you no usury of him, or increase: but fear your God; that your brother may live with you.
37 You shall not give him your money by usury, nor exact from him an overabundance of produce.
You shall not give him your money on usury, nor lend him your victuals for increase.
38 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.
I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 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.
And if your brother that dwells by you be waxen poor, and be sold to you; you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
40 But he shall be like a hired hand or a settler; he shall work with you, until the year of the Jubilee.
But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you, and shall serve you to the year of jubilee.
41 And after that, he shall depart with his children, and he shall return to his kindred, to the possession of his fathers.
And then shall he depart from you, both he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return.
42 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.
For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as slaves.
43 Do not afflict him by power, but be fearful of your God.
You shall not rule over him with rigor; but shall fear your God.
44 Let your male and female servants be from the nations which are all around you,
Both your slaves, and your bondmaids, which you shall have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall you buy slaves and bondmaids.
45 and from the newcomers who sojourn with you, or who have been born from them in your land. These you shall have as servants,
Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46 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.
And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your slaves for ever: but over your brothers the children of Israel, you shall not rule one over another with rigor.
47 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,
And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by you, and your brother that dwells by him wax poor, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner by you, or to the stock of the stranger’s family:
48 after the sale, he is able to be redeemed. Whoever is willing among his brothers shall redeem him:
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brothers may redeem him:
49 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,
Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
50 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.
And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him to the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
51 If there will have been many years which remain until the Jubilee, according to these shall he also repay the price.
If there be yet many years behind, according to them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52 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;
And if there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according to his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
53 his wages being charged by what served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight.
And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.
54 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.
And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he, and his children with him.
55 For they are my servants, the sons of Israel, whom I led away from the land of Egypt.
For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

< Leviticus 25 >