Leviticus 25

1 And YHWH speaks to Moses, in Mount Sinai, saying,

Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,

2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you have said to them: When you come into the land which I am giving to you, then the land has kept a Sabbath to YHWH.

“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 [For] six years you sow your field, and [for] six years you prune your vineyard, and have gathered its increase,

For six years you are to plant seeds in your fields and prune your grapevines and harvest the crops.

4 and in the seventh year is a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to YHWH; you do not sow your field, and you do not prune your 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 you do not reap the spontaneous growth of your harvest, and you do not gather the grapes of your separated thing; it is a year of rest 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 [increase] of the land has been for you for food, to you, and to your manservant, and to your handmaid, and to your hired worker, and to your settler, who are sojourning with you;

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 your livestock, and for the beast which [is] in your land, is all its increase for [them] to eat.

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

8 And you have numbered seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven Sabbaths of years have been forty-nine years for you,

‘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 you have caused a horn of shouting to pass over in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; in the Day of Atonements you cause a horn to pass over through all your land;

10 and you have hallowed the year, the fiftieth year; and you have proclaimed liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; it is a Jubilee for you; and you have turned back each to his possession; indeed, you return each to 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 It [is] a Jubilee, the fiftieth year, it is a year for you; you do not sow, nor reap its spontaneous growth, nor gather its separated things;

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] a Jubilee—it is holy to you; you eat its increase from the field;

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 you return each to his possession in this Year of the Jubilee.

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

14 And when you sell anything to your fellow, or buy from the hand of your fellow, you do not oppress 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 you buy from your fellow by the number of years after the Jubilee; he sells to you by the number of the years of increase;

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 you multiply its price according to the multitude of the years, and you diminish its price according to the fewness of the years; for [it is] a number of increases [that] he is selling to you;

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 you do not oppress one another, and you have been afraid of your God; for I [am] your God YHWH.

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

18 And you have done My statutes, and you keep My judgments, and have done them, and you have dwelt on the land confidently,

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

19 and the land has given its fruit, and you have eaten to satiety, and have dwelt confidently on it.

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

20 And when you say, What do we eat in the seventh year, behold, do we not sow, nor gather our increase?

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 have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it has made the increase 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 you have sown [in] the eighth year, and have eaten of the old increase; you eat the old until the ninth year, until the coming in of its increase.

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 is not sold—to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for you [are] sojourners and settlers 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 you give 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 When your brother becomes poor, and has sold his possession, then his redeemer who is near to him has come, and he has redeemed the sold thing of his brother;

‘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 when a man has no redeemer, and his own hand has attained [means], and he has found [it] as sufficient [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 he has reckoned the years of its sale, and has given back that which is over to the man to whom he sold [it], and he has returned to 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 has not found sufficiency to give back to him, then his sold thing has been in the hand of him who buys it until the Year of Jubilee; and it has gone out in the Jubilee, and he has returned to 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 when a man sells a dwelling-house [in] a walled city, then his right of redemption has been until the completion of a year from its selling; his right of redemption is [during these] days;

‘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 is not redeemed to him until the fullness of a perfect year, then the house which [is] in a walled city has been established to extinction to him buying it, throughout his generations; it does 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 And a house of the villages which have no surrounding wall is reckoned on the field of the country; there is redemption for it, and it goes 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 As for cities of the Levites—houses of the cities of their possession—continuous redemption is for 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 as for him who redeems from the Levites, then the sale of a house (and [in] the city of his possession) has gone out in the Jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons 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, a outskirt of their cities, is not sold; for it [is] a continuous possession for them.

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

35 And when your brother has become poor, and his hand has failed with you, then you have kept hold on him, sojourner and settler, and he has lived with you;

‘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 you take no usury or increase from him; and you have been afraid of your God; and your brother has lived with you;

[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 you do not give your money to him in usury, and you do not give your food 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] your God YHWH, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt to give the land of Canaan to you, to become 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 when your brother becomes poor with you, and he has been sold to you, you do not lay servile service on him;

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

40 he is as a hired worker [and] as a settler with you; he serves with you 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 then he has gone out from you, he and his sons with him, and has turned back to his family; and he turns back 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, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold [with] the sale of a servant;

[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 you do not rule over him with rigor, and you have been afraid of your God.

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

44 And your manservant and your handmaid whom you have [are] from the nations who [are] around you; you buy manservant and handmaid from them,

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

45 and also from the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, you buy from them, and from their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for 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 you have taken them for an inheritance for your sons after you, to inherit [for] a possession; you lay service on them for all time, but on your brothers, the sons of Israel, each with his brother—you do not rule over him 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 when the hand of a sojourner or settler with you attains [riches], and your brother with him has become poor, and he has been sold to a sojourner, a settler with you, or to the root of the family of a sojourner,

‘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 has been sold, there is a right of redemption for him; one of his brothers redeems 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 or his uncle or a son of his uncle redeems him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, redeems him, or [if] his own hand has attained [means] then he has been redeemed.

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 has reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him until the Year of Jubilee, and the money of his sale has been by the number of years; it is with him as the days of a hired worker.

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 many years still [remain], he gives back his redemption [money] according to them, from the money of his purchase.

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 few are left of the years until the Year of Jubilee, then he has reckoned with him [and] he gives back his redemption [money] according to his 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 as a hired worker, year by year, he is with him, and he does not rule him with rigor before your 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 is not redeemed in these [years], then he has gone out in the Year of Jubilee, he and his sons 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 sons of Israel [are] servants to Me; they [are] My servants whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I [am] your God YHWH.”

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