Leviticus 25
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
And the Lord spoke to Moses in the mount Sina, saying,
2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I give you, then the land must be made to keep a Sabbath for Yahweh.
Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, Whenever you shall have entered into the land, which I give to you, then the land shall rest which I give to you, for its sabbaths to the Lord.
3 You must plant your field for six years, and for six years you must prune your vineyard and gather the produce.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vine, and gather in its fruit.
4 But in the seventh year, a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land must be observed, a Sabbath for Yahweh. You must not plant your field or prune your vineyard.
But in the seventh year [shall be] a sabbath, it shall be a rest to the land, a sabbath to the Lord: you shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vine.
5 You must not conduct an organized harvest of whatever grows by itself, and you must not conduct an organized harvest of whatever grapes grow on your unpruned vines. This will be a year of solemn rest for the land.
And you shall not gather the spontaneous produce of your field, and you shall not gather fully the grapes of your dedication: it shall be a year of rest to the land.
6 Whatever the unworked land grows during the Sabbath year will be food for you. You, your male and female servants, your hired servants and the foreigners who live with you may gather food,
And the sabbaths of the land shall be food for you, and for your man-servant, and for your maidservant, and your hireling, and the stranger that abides with you.
7 and your livestock and also wild animals may eat whatever the land produces.
And for your cattle, and for the wild beats that are in your land, shall every fruit of it be for food.
8 You must count off seven Sabbaths of years, that is, seven times seven years, so that there will be seven Sabbaths of years, totaling forty-nine years.
And you shall reckon to yourself seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and they shall be to you seven weeks of years, nine and forty years.
9 Then you must blow a loud trumpet everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you must blow a trumpet throughout all your land.
In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall make a proclamation with the sound of a trumpet in all your land; on the day of atonement you shall make a proclamation with a trumpet in all your land.
10 You must set apart the fiftieth year to Yahweh and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee for you, in which property and slaves must be returned to their families.
And you shall sanctify the year, the fifties year, and you shall proclaim a release upon the land to all that inhabit it; it shall be given a year of release, a jubilee for you; and each one shall depart to his possession, and you shall go each to his family.
11 The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. You must not plant or conduct an organized harvest. Eat whatever grows by itself, and gather the grapes that grow on the unpruned vines.
This is a jubilee of release, the year shall be to you the fifties year: you shall not sow, nor reap the produce that comes of itself from the land, neither shall you gather its dedicated fruits.
12 For it is a Jubilee, which will be holy for you. You must eat the produce that grows by itself out of the fields.
For it is a jubilee of release; it shall be holy to you, you shall eat its fruits off the fields.
13 You must return everyone to his own property in this year of Jubilee.
In the year of the release [even] the jubilee of it, shall [each] one return to his possession.
14 If you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any land from your neighbor, you must not cheat or wrong each other.
And if you should sell a possession to your neighbor, or if you should buy of your neighbor, let not a man oppress his neighbor.
15 If you buy land from your neighbor, consider the number of years and crops that can be harvested until the next Jubilee. Your neighbor selling the land must consider that also.
According to the number of years after the jubilee shall you buy of your neighbor, according to the number of years of the fruits shall he sell to you.
16 A larger number of years until the next Jubilee will increase the value of land, and a smaller number of years until the next Jubilee will decrease the value, because the number of harvests the land will produce for the new owner is related to the number of years before the next Jubilee.
According as [there may be] a greater number of years he shall increase [the value of] his possession, and according as [there may be] a less number of years he shall lessen [the value of] his possession; for according to the number of his crops, so shall he sell to you.
17 You must not cheat or wrong one another; instead, you must honor your God, for I am Yahweh your God.
Let not a man oppress his neighbor, and you shall fear the Lord your God: I am the Lord your God.
18 Therefore you must obey my decrees, keep my laws, and carry them out. Then you will live in the land in safety.
And you shall keep all my ordinances, and all my judgments; and do you observe them, and you shall keep them, and dwell securely in the land.
19 The land will yield its produce, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.
And the land shall yield her increase, and you shall eat to fullness, and shall dwell securely in it.
20 You might say, “What will we eat during the seventh year? Look, we cannot plant or gather our produce.”
And if you should say, What shall we eat in this seventh year, if we do not sow nor gather in our fruits?
21 I will command my blessing to come upon you in the sixth year, and it will produce harvest enough for three years.
Then will I send my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and the land shall produce its fruits for three years.
22 You will plant in the eighth year and continue to eat from the previous years' produce and the stored food. Until the harvest of the ninth year comes in, you will be able to eat from the provisions stored in the previous years.
And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old fruits till the ninth year: until its fruit come, you shall eat old fruits of the old.
23 The land must not be sold to a new permanent owner, because the land is mine. You are all foreigners and temporary residents on my land.
And the land shall not be sold for a permanence; for the land is mine, because you are strangers and sojourners before me.
24 You must observe the right of redemption for all the land that you acquire; you must allow the land to be bought back by the family from whom you bought it.
And in every land of your possession, you shall allow ransoms for the land.
25 If your fellow Israelite became poor and for that reason sold some of his property, then his nearest relative may come and buy back the property that he sold to you.
And if your brother who is with you be poor, and should have sold [part] of his possession, and his kinsman who is near to him come, then he shall redeem the possession which his brother has sold.
26 If a man has no relative to redeem his property, but if he has prospered and has the ability to redeem it,
And if one have no near kinsman, and he prosper with his hand, and he find sufficient money, [even] his ransom;
27 then he may calculate the years since the land was sold and repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it. Then he may return to his own property.
then shall he calculate the years of his sale, and he shall give what is due to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his possession.
28 But if he is not able to get the land back for himself, then the land he has sold will remain in the ownership of the one who bought it until the year of Jubilee. At the year of Jubilee, the land will be returned to the man who sold it, and the original owner will return to his property.
But if his hand have not prospered sufficiently, so as that he should restore the money to him, then he that bought the possessions shall have them till the sixth year of the release; and it shall go out in the release, and the owner shall return to his possession.
29 If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may buy it back within a whole year after it was sold. For a full year he will have the right of redemption.
And if any one should sell an inhabited house in a walled city, then there shall be the ransom of it, until [the time] is fulfilled: its time of ransom shall be a full year.
30 If the house is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city will become the permanent property of the buyer and his descendants. It is not to be returned in the year of Jubilee.
And if it be not ransomed until there be completed of its time a full year, the house which is in the walled city shall be surely confirmed to him that bought it, throughout his generations; and it shall not go out in the release.
31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them will be considered as the field of the land. They may be redeemed, and they must be returned during the year of Jubilee.
But the houses in the villages which have not a wall round about them, shall be reckoned as the fields of the country: they shall always be redeemable, and they shall go out in the release.
32 However, the houses owned by the Levites in their cities may be redeemed at any time.
And the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities in their possession, shall be always redeemable to the Levites.
33 If one of the Levites does not redeem a house he sold, then the house that was sold in the city where it is located must be returned in the year of Jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property among the people of Israel.
And if any one shall redeem a house of the Levites, then shall their sale of the houses of their possession go out in the release; because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the children of Israel.
34 But the fields around their cities may not be sold because they are the permanent property of the Levites.
And the lands set apart for their cities shall not be sold, because this is their perpetual possession.
35 If your fellow countryman becomes poor, so that he can no longer provide for himself, then you must help him as you would help a foreigner or anyone else living as an outsider among you.
And if your brother who is with you become poor, and he fail in resources with you, you shall help him as a stranger and a sojourner, and your brother shall live with you.
36 Do not charge him interest or try to profit from him in any way, but honor your God so that your brother may keep living with you.
You shall not receive from him interest, nor increase: and you shall fear your God: I [am] the Lord: and your brother shall live with you.
37 You must not give him a loan of money and charge interest, nor sell him your food to earn a profit.
You shall not lend your money to him at interest, and you shall not lend your meat to him to be returned with increase.
38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, in order that I might give you the land of Canaan, and that I might be your God.
I [am] the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Chanaan, so as to be your God.
39 If your fellow countryman has become poor and sells himself to you, you must not make him work like a slave.
And if your brother by you be lowered, and be sold to you, he shall not serve you with the servitude of a slave.
40 Treat him as a hired servant. He must be like someone living temporarily with you. He will serve with you until the year of Jubilee.
He shall be with you as a hireling or a sojourner, he shall work for you till the year of release:
41 Then he will go away from you, he and his children with him, and he will return to his own family and to his fathers' property.
and he shall go out in the release, and his children with him; and he shall go to his family, he shall hasten back to his patrimony.
42 For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They will not be sold as slaves.
Because these are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; such an one shall not be sold as a [common] servant.
43 You must not rule over them harshly, but you must honor your God.
You shall not oppress him with labor, and shall fear the Lord your God.
44 As for your male and female slaves, whom you can obtain from the nations who live around you, you may buy slaves from them.
And whatever number of menservants and maidservants you shall have, you shall purchase male and female servants from the nations that are round about you.
45 You may also buy slaves from the foreigners who are living among you, that is, from their families who are with you, children who have been born in your land. They may become your property.
And of the sons of the sojourners that are among you, of these you shall buy and of their relations, all that shall be in your lands; let them be to you for a possession.
46 You may provide such slaves as an inheritance for your children after you, to hold as property, and make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your brothers among the people of Israel with harshness.
And you shall distribute them to your children after you, and they shall be to you permanent possessions for ever: but of your brethren the children of Israel, one shall not oppress his brother in labors.
47 If a foreigner or someone living temporarily with you has become wealthy, and if one of your fellow Israelites has become poor and sells himself to that foreigner, or to someone in a foreigner's family,
And if a stranger or sojourner with you wax rich, and your brother in distress be sold to the stranger or the sojourner that is with you, or to a proselyte by extraction;
48 after your fellow Israelite has been bought, he may be bought back. Someone in his family may redeem him.
after he is sold to him there shall be redemption for him, one of his brethren shall redeem him.
49 It might be the person's uncle, or his uncle's son, who redeems him, or anyone who is his close relative from his family. Or, if he has become prosperous, he may redeem himself.
A brother of his father, or a son of his father's brother shall redeem him; or let one of his near kin of his tribe redeem him, and if he should be rich and redeem himself,
50 He must bargain with the man who bought him; they must count the years from the year he sold himself to his purchaser until the year of Jubilee. The price of his redemption must be figured in keeping with the rate paid to a hired servant, for the number of years he might continue to work for the one who bought him.
then shall he calculate with his purchaser from the year that he sold himself to him until the year of release: and the money of his purchase shall be as that of a hireling, he shall be with him from year to year.
51 If there are still many years until the year of Jubilee, he must pay back as the price for his redemption an amount of money that is in proportion to the number of those years.
And if any have a greater number of years [than enough], according to these he shall pay his ransom out of his purchase-money.
52 If there are only a few years to the year of Jubilee, then he must bargain with his purchaser to reflect the number of years left before the year of Jubilee, and he must pay for his redemption in keeping with the number of years.
And if but a little time be left of the years to the year of release, then shall he reckon to him according to his years, and shall pay his ransom
53 He is to be treated like a man hired year by year. You must make sure he is not treated with harshness.
as a hireling; he shall be with him from year to year; you shall not oppress him with labor before you.
54 If he is not redeemed by these means, then he must serve until the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.
And if he do not pay his ransom accordingly, he shall go out in the year of his release, he and his children with him.
55 To me the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.'”
For the children of Israel are my servants: they are my attendants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.
