Leviticus 25
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,
Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 “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.
“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 For six years you are to plant seeds in your fields and prune your grapevines and harvest the crops.
For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.
4 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].
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 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.
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 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.
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 Also, [during that year] your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat it.’
and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.
8 ‘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.
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.
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 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).
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 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.
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 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).
For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.
13 ‘In that Year of Celebration, everyone must return to their own property.
In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.
14 ‘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:
If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
15 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.
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 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].
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 cheat each other; instead, revere me. I, Yahweh your God, [am the one who am commanding this].
Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
18 ‘Obey all my laws [DOU] carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country [DOU].
You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.
19 And crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat.
Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.
20 But you may ask, “If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?”
Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’
21 [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!
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 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!
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 ‘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.
The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
24 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].
Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
25 ‘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.
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 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,
Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,
27 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.
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 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.
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 ‘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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 ‘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.
As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.
33 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].
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 the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently/forever.
But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.
35 ‘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.
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 [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.
Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
37 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.
You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
38 [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].
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 one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave.
If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
40 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.
Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
41 During that year, you must free him, and he will go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned.
Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.
42 [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.
Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.
43 And do not treat the Israelis whom you buy cruelly; instead, revere me, your God.
You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
44 ‘If you want to have slaves, you are permitted to buy them from nearby countries.
Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.
45 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.
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 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.
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 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,
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 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:
he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:
49 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.
either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
50 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.
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 are a lot of years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay for his release a larger amount of the money.
If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.
52 If there are only a few years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay a smaller amount to be released.
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 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.
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 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,
Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.
55 because [it is as though] you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from [being slaves in] 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.
