Leviticus 25

1 And Yahweh spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying—

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

2 Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them: —When ye enter into the land which, I, am giving you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Yahweh.

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.

3 Six years, shalt thou sow thy field, and, six years, shalt thou prune thy vineyard, —and gather the increase thereof;

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

4 but, in the seventh year—a sabbath of sacred rest, shall there be unto the land, a sabbath unto Yahweh: thy field, shalt thou not sow, and, thy vineyard, shalt thou not prune;

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.

5 that which groweth of itself of thy harvest, shalt thou not reap; and the grapes of thine unpruned vines, shalt thou not cut off: a year of sacred rest, shall there be to the land.

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:

6 So shall the sabbath of the land be unto you for food: unto thee, and unto thy servant and unto thy handmaid, —and unto thy hireling, and unto thy settlers that are sojourning with thee;

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:

7 and unto thy tame-beasts, and unto the wild-beasts that are in thy land, shall belong all the increase thereof for food.

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

8 And thou shalt count to thee seven weeks of years, seven years, seven times, —so shall the days of the seven weeks of years become to thee forty-nine years.

Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years, that is to say, seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years:

9 Then shalt thou cause a signal-horn to pass through in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month: on the Day of Propitiation, shall ye cause a horn to pass throughout all your land.

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 So shall ye hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim freedom throughout the land to all the dwellers thereof, —a jubilee, shall it be unto you, and ye shall return, every man unto his possession, and every man unto his family, shall ye return.

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:

11 A jubilee, shall that fiftieth year be unto you, —ye shall not sow, neither shall ye reap the self-grown corn thereof, nor cut off the grapes of the unpruned vines thereof.

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,

12 For, a jubilee, it is, holy, shall it be unto you, —out of the field, shall ye eat her increase.

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

13 In this same jubilee year, shall ye return every man unto his possession.

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

14 And when ye sell anything to thy neighbour, or buy aught at thy neighbour’s hand, do not overreach one another.

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.

15 By the number of years after the jubilee, shalt thou buy of thy neighbour, —by the number of the years of increase, shall he sell unto thee;

And he shall sell to thee according to the computation of the fruits.

16 according to the multitude of the years, shalt thou increase the price thereof, and, according to the fewness of the years, shalt thou diminish the price thereof, —because the sum of the increase, it is that he selleth thee.

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.

17 So then ye shall not overreach one another; but thou shalt stand in awe of thy God, —for, I—Yahweh, am your God.

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

18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and my regulations, shall ye observe and do them, —so shall ye dwell upon the land with confidence;

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

19 and the land shall yield her fruit; and ye shall eat to the full, —and shall dwell with confidence thereupon.

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

20 And since ye may say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? Lo! we are not to sow, neither are we to gather our increase!

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

21 Therefore will I command my blessing upon you, in the sixth year, —and it shall make the increase of three years;

I will give you my blessing the sixth year, and it shall yield the fruits of three years:

22 and ye shall sow, the eighth year, and eat of old store, —until the ninth year until the coming in of the increase thereof, shall ye eat old store.

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.

23 The land moreover shall not be sold beyond recovery, for, mine, is the land, —for, sojourners and settlers, ye are with me.

The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me.

24 And, in all the land of your possession, a right of redemption, shall ye give to the land.

For which cause all the country of your possession shall be under the condition of redemption.

25 When thy brother waxeth poor, and so selleth aught of his possession, then may his kinsman that is near unto him come in, and redeem that which was sold by his brother.

If thy brother being impoverished sell his little possession, and his kinsman will, he may redeem what he had sold.

26 And, when, any man, hath no kinsman, —but his own hand getteth enough, so that he findeth what is needed to redeem it,

But if he have no kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it:

27 then shall he reckon the years since he sold it, and restore the overplus to the man to whom he sold it, —and shall return to his possession.

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.

28 But, if his hand have not found enough to get it back unto him, then shall that which he sold remain in the hand of him that bought it, until the year of the jubilee, —and shall go out in the jubilee, and he shall return unto his possession.

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.

29 And, when, any man, selleth a dwelling-house in a walled city, then shall his right of redemption remain until the completion of a year after he sold it, —for, [a year of] days, shall his right of redemption remain.

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

30 But, if it be not redeemed before the end of a full year, then shall the house that is in the city that hath walls be confirmed, beyond recovery, to him who bought it, unto his generations, —it shall not go out in the jubilee.

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.

31 But as for the houses of villages which have no wall round about them, with the fields of land, shall it be reckoned, —a right of redemption, shall belong to it, and, in the jubilee, shall it go out.

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.

32 And as for the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, an age-abiding right of redemption, shall pertain unto the Levites.

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

33 And, if one of the Levites should not redeem, then shall the sale of the house and the city of his possession go out in the jubilee; for, the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession, in the midst of the sons of Israel.

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.

34 But the field of the pasture-land of their cities, shall not be sold, —for an age-abiding possession, it is unto them.

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

35 And, when thy brother waxeth poor, and his hand becometh feeble with thee, then shalt thou strengthen him, as a sojourner and a settler, so shall he live with thee.

If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee,

36 Do not accept from him interest or profit, but stand thou in awe of thy God, —so shall thy brother live with thee.

Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest: fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee.

37 Thy silver, shalt thou not give him on interest, —neither, for profit, shalt thou give him thy food.

Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor exact of him any increase of fruits.

38 I—Yahweh, am your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, —to give unto you the land of Canaan, to become your God,

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.

39 And when thy brother waxeth poor with thee, and so selleth himself unto thee, thou shalt not bind him with the bondage of a bondman:

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

40 as a hired servant, as a settler, shall he remain with thee, —until the year of the jubilee, shall he serve with thee:

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

41 then shall he go forth from thee, he and his sons with him, —and shall return unto his family, and unto the possession of his fathers, shall he return.

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

42 For, my bondmen, they are, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt, —they shall not sell themselves with the sale of a bondman.

For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen:

43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour, —so shalt thou stand in awe of thy God.

Afflict him not by might, but fear thy God.

44 And as for thy bondman and thy bond-maid which thou shalt have, of the nations that are round about you—from them, may ye buy bondman and bond-maid.

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

45 Moreover also, of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you—of them, may ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land, —so shall they become yours, as a possession;

And of the strangers that sojourn among you, or that were born of them in your land, these you shall have for servants:

46 and ye may take them as an inheritance for your sons after you to inherit as a possession, unto times age-abiding, of them, may ye take to be bondmen, —but, over your brethren the sons of Israel—a man over his brother, ye shall not rule, over him with rigour.

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.

47 And, when the hand of the sojourner and settler with thee getteth possessions, and thy brother with him, waxeth poor, —and so he selleth himself to the sojourner [who is] a settler with thee, or to one who hath taken root, of the family of the sojourner,

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:

48 after that he hath sold himself, a right of redemption, pertaineth to him, —one of his brethren, may redeem him;

After the sale he may be redeemed. He that will of his brethren shall redeem him:

49 or, his uncle or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or, a near flesh-relation of his, of his family, may redeem him, or, his own hand may have gotten enough, and, so he may redeem himself.

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,

50 Then shall he reckon with him that bought him, from the year that he was sold to him, unto the year of the jubilee, —and the silver for which he was sold shall be by the number of years, according to the days of a hired servant, shall he be with him.

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,

51 If there is yet a multitude of years, according to them, shall he return, as his redemption price, of the silver of him that bought him.

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

52 Or, if [there is] but a small remainder of years, until the year of the jubilee, then shall he reckon to himself, according to the years thereof, shall he return his price of redemption.

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,

53 As a servant hired year by year, shall he be with him, he shall not rule over him with rigour, before thine eyes.

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

54 But if he be not redeemed in any of these ways, then shall he go out in the jubilee year, he, and his sons with him.

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

55 For, unto me, are the sons of Israel, bondmen, my bondmen, they are, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I, Yahweh, am your God.

For the children of Israel are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.