Leviticus 25

1 And the Lord spoke unto Moses on 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 which I give unto you; then shall the land keep a sabbath unto 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 shalt thou sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit 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 of rest unto the land, a sabbath [in honor] of the Lord: 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 groweth of its own accord of thy harvest shalt thou not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine shalt thou not gather: a year of rest shall it be unto 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 product of] the sabbath of the land shall be unto you for food, for thee, and for thy man-servant, and for thy maid-servant, and for thy hired laborer, and for thy stranger, 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 And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all its products be [left] for food.

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

8 And thou shalt number unto thee seven sabbaths of years, seven years seven times; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and 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 then shalt thou cause the sound of the cornet to be heard, in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month: on the day of atonement shall ye sound the cornet throughout all your land.

10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim freedom throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee 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 jubilee shall this, the fiftieth year, be unto you: ye shall not sow, nor reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather in it the fruit of the 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; holy shall it be unto you: from the field shall ye eat the products thereof.

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 shall ye return, every man, unto his possession.

‘In that Year of Celebration, everyone must return to their own property.

14 And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy aught of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not overreach one the other;

‘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 after the jubilee shalt thou buy of thy neighbor, according unto the number of harvest-years shall he 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 multitude of years shalt thou increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years shalt thou diminish the price thereof; for a number of harvests doth he sell 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 overreach one the other; but thou shalt be afraid of thy God; for 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 And ye shall do my statutes, and my ordinances shall ye keep and do them; and then shall ye dwell in the land in safety.

‘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 your fill, and dwell in safety therein.

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

20 And if ye should say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we are not permitted to sow, and we cannot gather in our harvest:

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 will I command my blessing unto you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth a harvest 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 when ye sow in the eighth year, then shall ye eat yet of the old harvest; until the ninth year, until its harvest come in, shall ye eat of 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 And the land shall not be sold for a permanence [to the purchaser]; for the land is mine; for strangers and sojourners are ye 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 become poor, and sell away some of his possession: then may his nearest of kin come and redeem what his brother hath 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 none to redeem it, and he acquire the means, sufficient to be able to redeem it himself:

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 let him reckon the years since his sale, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and so shall he 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 But if his means do not suffice to enable him to restore it to him: then shall that which he hath sold remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of the jubilee; and it shall be freed in the jubilee, 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 a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city: then shall the time of redemption last till the end of the year of his sale; a full year shall his time of redemption last.

‘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 And if it be not redeemed within the expiration of a full year: then shall the house which is in the walled city remain as a permanence to him that bought it throughout his generations; it shall not become freed 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 of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they shall have the right of redemption, and they shall become freed 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 And [respecting] the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, a perpetual right of redemption shall belong to the Levites.

‘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 a man of the Levites redeem something: then shall the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, become freed 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 a field of the suburbs of their cities shall not be sold; for a perpetual possession is it unto them.

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

35 And if thy brother become poor, and fall in decay with thee: then shalt thou assist him, [yea] a stranger, or a sojourner, that he may 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 Thou shalt not take of him any usury or increase; but thou shalt be afraid of 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 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 the Lord your God, who have brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give unto you the land of Canaan, to be unto you a 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 become poor near thee, and be sold unto thee: thou shalt not compel him to work as a bond-servant.

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

40 But as a hired laborer, as a sojourner, shall he be with thee; until the year of the jubilee shall he serve with 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 And then shall he depart from thee, he and his children with him; and he 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 my servants are they, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bond-men are sold.

[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 rigor; but thou shalt have fear of thy God.

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

44 But thy bond-man, and thy bond-woman that shall remain thine, shall be of the nations that are round about you; of them may ye buy bond-man and bond-woman.

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

45 And also of the children of the strangers that sojourn with you, of them may ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land; and they shall remain to you as a 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 may transfer them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; you may hold them to service for ever; but over your brethren the children of Israel, one over the other, ye shall not rule with rigor.

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 wax rich near thee, and thy brother become poor near him, and he sell himself unto the sojourning stranger near thee, or to a descendant of a 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 he hath sold himself shall he have the right of redemption; 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 any that is near of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he obtain the means, 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 sold himself to him unto the year of the jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, as the time of a hired laborer shall he have been 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 be yet many years, according to them shall he return the price of his redemption out of his purchase-money.

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 the jubilee: then shall he reckon with him; according to his years shall he return the price of his redemption.

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 laborer hired from year to year shall he be with him; he shall not rule over him with rigor before thy 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 by [one of] these means: then shall he go out in the year of the jubilee, both 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 unto me are the children of Israel servants, my servants are they, whom I have brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Eternal your God.

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