Leviticus 25
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying:
Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have entered into the land which I will give you, observe the rest of the sabbath to the Lord.
“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.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and shalt gather the fruits thereof:
For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.
4 But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath to the land, of the resting of the Lord: thou shalt not sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
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.
5 What the ground shall bring forth of itself, thou shalt not reap: neither shalt thou gather the grapes of the firstfruits as a vintage: for it is a year of rest to the land:
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.
6 But they shall be unto you for meat, to thee and to thy manservant, to thy maidservant and thy hireling, and to the strangers that sojourn with thee:
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,
7 All things that grow shall be meat to thy beasts and to thy cattle.
and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.
8 Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years, that is to say, seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years:
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.
9 And thou shalt sound the trumpet in the seventh month, the tenth day of the month, in the time of the expiation in all your land.
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.
10 And thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee. Every man shall return to his possession, and every one shall go back to his former family:
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.
11 Because it is the jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, nor reap the things that grow in the field of their own accord, neither shall you gather the firstfruits of the vines,
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.
12 Because of the sanctification of the jubilee: but as they grow you shall presently eat them.
For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.
13 In the year of the jubilee all shall return to their possessions.
In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.
14 When thou shalt sell any thing to thy neighbour, or shalt buy of him; grieve not thy brother: but thou shalt buy of him according to the number of years from the jubilee.
If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
15 And he shall sell to thee according to the computation of the fruits.
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.
16 The more years remain after the jubilee, the more shall the price increase: and the less time is counted, so much the less shall the purchase cost. For he shall sell to thee the time of the fruits.
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.
17 Do not afflict your countrymen, but let every one fear his God: because I am the Lord your God.
Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
18 Do my precepts, and keep my judgments, and fulfill them: that you may dwell in the land without any fear,
You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.
19 And the ground may yield you its fruits, of which you may eat your fill, fearing no mall’s invasion.
Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.
20 But if you say: What shall we eat the seventh year, if we sow not, nor gather our fruits?
Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’
21 I will give you my blessing the sixth year, and it shall yield the fruits of three years:
But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.
22 And the eighth year you shall sow, and shall eat of the old fruits, until the ninth year: till new grow up, you shall eat the old store.
While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.
23 The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me.
The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
24 For which cause all the country of your possession shall be under the condition of redemption.
Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
25 If thy brother being impoverished sell his little possession, and his kinsman will, he may redeem what he had sold.
If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.
26 But if he have no kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it:
Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,
27 The value of the fruits shall be counted from that time when he sold it: and the overplus he shall restore to the buyer, and so shall receive his possession again.
he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property.
28 But if his hands find not the means to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the jubilee. For in that year all that is sold shall return to the owner, and to the ancient possessor.
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.
29 He that selleth a house within the walls of a city, shall have the liberty to redeem it, until one year be expired:
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.
30 If he redeem it not, and the whole year be fully out, the buyer shall possess it, and his posterity for ever, and it cannot be redeemed, not even in the jubilee.
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.
31 But if the house be in a village, that hath no walls, it shall be sold according to the same law as the fields: if it be not redeemed before, in the jubilee it shall return to the owner.
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.
32 The houses of Levites, which are in cities, may always be redeemed:
As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.
33 If they be not redeemed, in the jubilee they shall all return to the owners, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possessions among the children of Israel.
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.
34 But let not their suburbs be sold, because it is a perpetual possession.
But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.
35 If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee,
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.
36 Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest: fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee.
Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor exact of him any increase of fruits.
You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might give you the land of Chanaan, and might be your God.
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.
39 If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee, thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants:
If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
40 But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee,
Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
41 And afterwards he shall go out with his children, and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers,
Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.
42 For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen:
Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.
43 Afflict him not by might, but fear thy God.
You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
44 Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are round about you.
Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.
45 And of the strangers that sojourn among you, or that were born of them in your land, these you shall have for servants:
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.
46 And by right of inheritance shall leave them to your posterity, and shall possess them for ever. But oppress not your brethren the children of Israel by might.
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.
47 If the hand of a stranger or a sojourner grow strong among you, and thy brother being impoverished sell himself to him, or to any of his race:
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,
48 After the sale he may be redeemed. He that will of his brethren shall redeem him:
he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:
49 Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, or his kinsman, by blood, or by affinity. But if he himself be able also, he shall redeem himself,
either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
50 Counting only the years from the time of his selling unto the year of the jubilee: and counting the money that he was sold for, according to the number of the years and the reckoning of a hired servant,
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.
51 If there be many years that remain until the jubilee, according to them shall he also repay the price.
If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.
52 If few, he shall make the reckoning with him according to the number of the years, and shall repay to the buyer of what remaineth of the years,
If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to calculate and pay his redemption according to his remaining years.
53 His wages being allowed for which he served before: he shall not afflict him violently in thy sight.
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.
54 And if by these means he cannot be redeemed, in the year of the jubilee he shall go out with his children.
Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.
55 For the children of Israel are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.
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.
