Leviticus 25
1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land that I will give you, the land shall celebrate a sabbath to Jehovah.
“Tell the Israelis [that I, Yahweh, say this]: When you enter the land that I am about to give you, every seventh year you must honor me by [not planting any seeds. You will be] allowing the ground to rest.
3 Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the produce thereof,
For six years you are to plant seeds in your fields and prune your grapevines and harvest the crops.
4 but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Thy field shalt thou not sow, and thy vineyard shalt thou not prune.
But the seventh/next year you must [dedicate] to me, and allow your fields to rest. Do not plant seeds in your fields or prune your grapevines [during that year].
5 That which springeth up from the scattered seed of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thine undressed vines thou shalt not gather: a year of rest shall it be for the land.
Do not reap [the grain] that grows in your fields without having been planted, or harvest the grapes that grow [without the vines being pruned]; you must allow the land to rest for that one year.
6 And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you, for thee, and for thy bondman, and for thy handmaid, and for thy hired servant, and for him that dwelleth as a sojourner with thee, and for thy cattle,
But you are permitted to eat whatever crops grow by themselves during that year without having been planted. You and your male and female servants, and workers whom you have hired, and people who are living among you temporarily are permitted to eat it.
7 and for the beasts that are in thy land: all the produce thereof shall be for food.
Also, [during that year] your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat it.’
8 And thou shalt count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; so that the days of the seven sabbaths of years be unto thee forty-nine years.
‘Also, after every 49 years has ended, you must do this: (On the tenth day of the seventh month/At the end of September) [of the next/50th year], blow trumpets throughout the country, to declare that it will be a day on which you request that I forgive you for the sins that you have committed.
9 Then shalt thou cause the loud sound of the trumpet to go forth in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the day of atonement shall ye cause the trumpet to go forth throughout your land.
10 And ye shall hallow the year of the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; a [year of] jubilee shall it be unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family;
Set apart that year, and proclaim that throughout the country, it will be a year of restoring the land and freeing people: All the people [who sold their property] will receive back the property that they previously owned, and slaves must be (freed/allowed to return to [their property and] their families).
11 a year of jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap its aftergrowth, nor gather [the fruit of] its undressed vines.
That year will be a Year of Celebration; [during that year] do not plant anything, and do not harvest [in the usual way] the grain/wheat that grows without having been planted, or the grapes that grow without the vines being pruned.
12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; out of the field shall ye eat its produce.
It will be a Year of Celebration, so eat [only] what grows in the fields (by itself/without any work being done to produce anything).
13 In this year of the jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.
‘In that Year of Celebration, everyone must return to their own property.
14 And if ye sell ought unto your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour's hand, ye shall not overreach one another.
‘If you sell some of your land to a fellow Israeli or if you buy some land from one of them, you must treat that person fairly:
15 According to the number of years since the jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbour; according to the number of years of the produce, he shall sell unto thee.
If you buy land, the price that you will pay will depend on the number of years there will be until the next Year of Celebration. If someone sells land to you, he will charge a price that is determined by the number of years until the next Year of Celebration.
16 According to the greater number of the years, thou shalt increase the price thereof; and according to the fewness of years, thou shalt diminish the price of it; for it is the number of crops that he selleth unto thee.
If there will be many years before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher; if there will be only a few years until the next Year of Celebration, the price will be lower. [You could say that] what he is really selling you is the number of crops [which you can harvest before the next Year of Celebration].
17 And ye shall not oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am Jehovah your God.
Do not cheat each other; instead, revere me. I, Yahweh your God, [am the one who am commanding this].
18 And ye shall do my statutes, and observe mine ordinances and do them: thus shall ye dwell in your land securely.
‘Obey all my laws [DOU] carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country [DOU].
19 And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat and be satisfied, and dwell therein securely.
And crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat.
20 And if ye say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we may not sow, nor gather in our produce;
But you may ask, “If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?”
21 then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, that it may bring forth produce for three years;
[My answer is that] I will bless you very much during the sixth/previous year, with the result that during that year there will be enough crops to provide food for you for three years!
22 and ye shall sow in the eighth year, and ye shall eat of the old fruit until the ninth year; until her produce come in, ye shall eat the old.
Then, after you plant seed during the eighth/next year [and wait for the crops to grow], you will eat the food grown in the sixth year, and continue to eat it until more food is harvested in the ninth year!
23 And the land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
‘You must not sell any of your land to belong to someone else permanently, because the land [is not yours, it]; is really mine, and you are only living on it temporarily and (farming/taking care of) it for me.
24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
Throughout the country that you will possess, you must remember that if someone sells some of his land to you, he is permitted to buy it back from you [if he wants to].
25 If thy brother grow poor, and sell of his possession, then shall his redeemer, his nearest relation, come and redeem that which his brother sold.
‘So, if one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells some of his property [to obtain some money], the person who is most closely related to him is permitted to come and buy that land for him.
26 And if the man have no one having right of redemption, and his hand have acquired and found what sufficeth for its redemption,
However, if a man has no one to buy the land for him, and he himself prospers again and saves enough money to buy that land back,
27 then shall he reckon the years since the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and so return unto his possession.
he must calculate how many years there will be until the next Year of Celebration. Then he must pay to the man who bought the land the money that he would have earned by continuing to grow crops on that land for those years.
28 And if his hand have not found what sufficeth for him to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of the purchaser, until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
But if the original owner does not have any money to buy the land that he sold, it will continue to belong to the man who bought it, until the next Year of Celebration. In that year it must be returned to its original owner, and he will be able to live on it again.
29 And if any one sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he shall have the right of redemption up to the end of the year of the sale thereof; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.
‘If someone who lives in a city that has a wall around it sells a house there, during the next year he will be permitted to buy it from the man who bought it.
30 But if it be not redeemed until a whole year is complete, 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.
If he does not buy it during that year, it will belong permanently to the man who bought it and to his descendants. It must not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Celebration.
31 But the houses in villages that have no wall round about them shall be reckoned as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
But houses that are in villages that do not have walls around them are considered to be as though they are in a field. So if someone sells one of those houses, he is permitted to buy it back at any time. And [if he does not buy it], it must be returned to him in the Year of Celebration.
32 But as to the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption.
‘If any descendants of Levi sell their houses in the towns in which they live, they are permitted to buy them back at any time.
33 And if any one redeem from one of the Levites, then the house that was sold, in the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
And because the houses in their towns are on land that [was given to them by] other Israelis, that land will become theirs again in the Year of Celebration [if they do not buy it back before then].
34 And the field of the suburbs of their cities shall not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
But the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently/forever.
35 And if thy brother grow poor, and he be fallen into decay beside thee, then thou shalt relieve him, [be he] stranger or sojourner, that he may live beside thee.
‘If one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and is unable to buy what he needs [IDM], others of you must help him like you would help a foreigner who is living among you [DOU] temporarily.
36 Thou shalt take no usury nor increase of him; and thou shalt fear thy God; that thy brother may live beside thee.
[If you lend money to him], do not charge any kind of interest [DOU]. Instead, [show by what you do that you] revere me, your God, and help that man, in order that he will be able to continue to live among you.
37 Thy money shalt thou not give him upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
If you lend him money, do not charge interest; and if you sell food to him, [charge him only what you paid for it]; do not get a profit from it.
38 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
[Do not forget that] I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God and to give you the land of Canaan, [and I did not charge you for doing that].
39 And if thy brother grow poor beside thee, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
‘If one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave.
40 as a hired servant, as a sojourner, shall he be with thee; until the year of jubilee shall he serve thee.
Treat him like you treat workers that you hire or like someone who is living on your land temporarily. But he must work for you [only] until the Year of Celebration.
41 Then shall he depart from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
During that year, you must free him, and he will go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned.
42 For they are my bondmen, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as [men] sell bondmen.
[It is as though] you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I [freed from being slaves] in Egypt. So none of you should be sold to become slaves.
43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; and thou shalt fear thy God.
And do not treat the Israelis whom you buy cruelly; instead, revere me, your God.
44 And as for thy bondman and thy handmaid whom thou shalt have — of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and handmaids.
‘If you want to have slaves, you are permitted to buy them from nearby countries.
45 Moreover of the children of them that dwell as sojourners with you, of them may ye buy, and of their family that is with you, which they beget in your land, and they shall be your possession.
You are also permitted to buy some of the foreigners who are living among you, and members of their clans that were born in your country. Then you will own them.
46 And ye shall leave them as an inheritance to your children after you, to inherit them as a possession: these may ye make your bondmen for ever; but as for your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigour.
They will be your slaves for the remaining years of your life, and after you die, it is permitted for your children to own them. But you must not act in brutal ways toward your fellow Israelis.
47 And if a stranger or sojourner become wealthy beside thee, and thy brother beside him grow poor, and sell himself unto the stranger, who is settled by thee, or to a scion of the stranger's family,
‘If a foreigner who is living among you [DOU] becomes rich, and if one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to that foreigner or to a member of his clan/family,
48 after that he is sold there shall be right of redemption for him; one of his brethren may redeem him.
it is permitted for someone to pay for him to be freed. It is permitted for one of his relatives to pay for him to be released:
49 Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or one of his next relations of his family may redeem him; or if his means be sufficient, he may redeem himself.
An uncle or a cousin or another relative in his clan may pay for him to be released. Or, if he prospers [and gets enough money], he is permitted to pay for his own release.
50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of the years, according to the days of a hired servant shall he be with him.
The man who wants to pay for his own release must count the number of years until the next Year of Celebration. The price he pays to the man who bought him will depend on the pay that would be given to a hired worker for that number of years.
51 If there are yet many years, according unto them shall he return his redemption [money] out of the money that he was bought for;
If there are a lot of years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay for his release a larger amount of the money.
52 and if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his [remaining] years [of service] shall he give him back his redemption [money].
If there are only a few years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay a smaller amount to be released.
53 As a hired servant shall he be with him year by year; [his master] shall not rule with rigour over him before thine eyes.
During the years that he is working for the man who bought him, the man who bought him must treat him like he would treat a hired worker, and all of you must make sure that his owner does not treat him cruelly.
54 And if he be not redeemed in this manner, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him.
‘And even if a fellow Israeli who has sold himself to a rich man is not able to pay for himself to be freed by any of these ways, he and his children must be freed in the Year of Celebration,
55 For the children of Israel are servants unto me; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.
because [it is as though] you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from [being slaves in] Egypt.’”
