Leviticus 25

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying:

Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,

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.

“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 thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and shalt gather the fruits 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 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 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 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:

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 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:

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 All things that grow shall be meat to thy beasts and to thy cattle.

Also, [during that year] your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat it.’

8 Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years, that is to say, seven times seven, which together make 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 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.

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:

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 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,

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 Because of the sanctification of the jubilee: but as they grow you shall presently eat them.

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 the year of the jubilee all shall return to their possessions.

‘In that Year of Celebration, everyone must return to their 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 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 And he shall sell to thee according to the computation of the fruits.

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 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.

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 Do not afflict your countrymen, but let every one fear his God: because I am the Lord your God.

Do not cheat each other; instead, revere me. I, Yahweh your God, [am the one who am commanding this].

18 Do my precepts, and keep my judgments, and fulfill them: that you may dwell in the land without any fear,

‘Obey all my laws [DOU] carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country [DOU].

19 And the ground may yield you its fruits, of which you may eat your fill, fearing no mall’s invasion.

And crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat.

20 But if you say: What shall we eat the seventh year, if we sow not, nor gather our fruits?

But you may ask, “If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?”

21 I will give you my blessing the sixth year, and it shall yield the fruits of 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 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.

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 The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine, and you 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 For which cause all the country of your possession shall be under the condition of redemption.

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 being impoverished sell his little possession, and his kinsman will, he may redeem what he had 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 But if he have no kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it:

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 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 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 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 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 He that selleth a house within the walls of a city, shall have the liberty to redeem it, until one year be expired:

‘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 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 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 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 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 The houses of Levites, which are in cities, may always be redeemed:

‘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 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.

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 But let not their suburbs be sold, because it is a perpetual possession.

But the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently/forever.

35 If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with 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 Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest: fear thy God, that thy brother may live with 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 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor exact of him any increase of fruits.

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 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.

[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 If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee, thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants:

‘If one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave.

40 But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee,

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 And afterwards he shall go out with his children, and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers,

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 servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as 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 Afflict him not by might, but fear thy God.

And do not treat the Israelis whom you buy cruelly; instead, revere me, your God.

44 Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are round about you.

‘If you want to have slaves, you are permitted to buy them from nearby countries.

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 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 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.

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 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 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 the sale he may be redeemed. He that will of his brethren shall 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, or his kinsman, by blood, or by affinity. But if he himself be able also, he shall 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 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,

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 be many years that remain until the jubilee, according to them shall he also repay the price.

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 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 there are only a few years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay a smaller amount to be released.

53 His wages being allowed for which he served before: he shall not afflict him violently in thy sight.

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 by these means he cannot be redeemed, in the year of the jubilee he shall go out with his children.

‘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 my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.

because [it is as though] you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from [being slaves in] Egypt.’”