Leviticus 25

1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in mount Sinai, saying,

Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

2 'Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye come in unto the land which I am giving to you, then hath the land kept a sabbath to Jehovah.

“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 'Six years thou dost sow thy field, and six years thou dost prune thy vineyard, and hast gathered its increase,

For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

4 and in the seventh year a sabbath of rest is to the land, a sabbath to Jehovah; thy field thou dost not sow, and thy vineyard thou dost not prune;

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 the spontaneous growth of thy harvest thou dost not reap, and the grapes of thy separated thing thou dost not gather, a year of rest it is to the land.

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 'And the sabbath of the land hath been to you for food, to thee, and to thy man-servant, and to thy handmaid, and to thy hireling, and to thy settler, who are sojourning with thee;

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 and to thy cattle, and to the beast which [is] in thy land, is all thine increase for food.

and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.

8 'And thou hast numbered to thee seven sabbaths of years, seven years seven times, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years have been to thee nine and forty years,

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.

9 and thou hast caused a trumpet of shouting to pass over in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month; in the day of the atonements ye do cause a trumpet to pass over through all your land;

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 and ye have hallowed the year, the fiftieth year; and ye have proclaimed liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; a jubilee it is to you; and ye have turned back each unto his possession; yea, each unto his family ye do turn back.

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 'A jubilee it [is], the fiftieth year, a year it is to you; ye sow not, nor reap its spontaneous growth, nor gather its separated things;

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 for a jubilee it [is], holy it is to you; out of the field ye eat its increase;

For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.

13 in the year of this jubilee ye turn back each unto his possession.

In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

14 'And when thou sellest anything to thy fellow, or buyest from the hand of thy fellow, ye do not oppress one another;

If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

15 by the number of years after the jubilee thou dost buy from thy fellow; by the number of the years of increase he doth sell to thee;

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 according to the multitude of the years thou dost multiply its price, and according to the fewness of the years thou dost diminish its price; for a number of increases he is selling to thee;

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 and ye do not oppress one another, and thou hast been afraid of thy God; for I [am] Jehovah your God.

Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

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

You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.

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

Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

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

Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’

21 then I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it hath made the increase 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 and ye have sown the eighth year, and have eaten of the old increase; until the ninth year, until the coming in of its increase, ye do eat the old.

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 'And the land is not sold — to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for sojourners and settlers [are] ye with Me;

The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

24 and in all the land of your possession a redemption ye do give to the land.

Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

25 'When thy brother becometh poor, and hath sold his possession, then hath his redeemer who is near unto him come, and he hath redeemed the sold thing of his brother;

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 and when a man hath no redeemer, and his own hand hath attained, and he hath found as sufficient [for] its redemption,

Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,

27 then he hath reckoned the years of its sale, and hath given back that which is over to the man to whom he sold [it], and he hath returned to his possession.

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 'And if his hand hath not found sufficiency to give back to him, then hath his sold thing been in the hand of him who buyeth it till the year of jubilee; and it hath gone out in the jubilee, and he hath returned to his possession.

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 'And when a man selleth a dwelling-house [in] a walled city, then hath his right of redemption been until the completion of a year from its selling; days — is his right of redemption;

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 and if it is not redeemed until the fulness to him of a perfect year, then hath the house which [is] in a walled city been established to extinction to the buyer of it, to his generations; it goeth not out in the jubilee;

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 and a house of the villages which have no wall round about, on the field of the country is reckoned; redemption is to it, and in the jubilee it goeth out.

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 'As to cities of the Levites — houses of the cities of their possession — redemption age-during is to the Levites;

As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.

33 as to him who redeemeth from the Levites, both the sale of a house and the city of his possession have 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.

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 And a field, a suburb of their cities, is not sold; for a possession age-during it [is] to them.

But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.

35 'And when thy brother is become poor, and his hand hath failed with thee, then thou hast kept hold on him, sojourner and settler, and he hath lived with thee;

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 thou takest no usury from him, or increase; and thou hast been afraid of thy God; and thy brother hath lived with thee;

Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

37 thy money thou givest not to him in usury, and for increase thou givest not thy food;

You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.

38 I [am] Jehovah your God, who hath brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give to you the land of Canaan, to become your God.

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 'And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service;

If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

40 as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, —

Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

41 then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back.

Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.

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;

Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

43 thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God.

You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

44 'And thy man-servant and thy handmaid whom thou hast [are] of the nations who [are] round about you; of them ye buy man-servant and handmaid,

Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.

45 and also of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, of them ye buy, and of their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession;

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 and ye have taken them for inheritance to your sons after you, to occupy [for] a possession; to the age ye lay service upon them, but upon your brethren, the sons of Israel, one with another, thou dost not rule over him with rigour.

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 'And when the hand of a sojourner or settler with thee attaineth [riches], and thy brother with him hath become poor, and he hath been sold to a sojourner, a settler with thee, or to the root of the family of a sojourner,

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 after he hath been sold, there is a right of redemption to him; one of his brethren doth redeem him,

he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:

49 or his uncle, or a son of his uncle, doth redeem him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, doth redeem him, or — his own hand hath attained — then he hath been redeemed.

either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

50 'And he hath reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him till the year of jubilee, and the money of his sale hath been by the number of years; as the days of an hireling it is with him.

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 yet many years, according to them he giveth back his redemption [money], from the money of his purchase.

If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.

52 'And if few are left of the years till the year of jubilee, then he hath reckoned with him, according to his years he doth give back his redemption [money];

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 as an hireling, year by year, he is with him, and he doth not rule him with rigour before thine eyes.

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 if he is not redeemed in these [years], then he hath gone out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.

Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.

55 For to Me [are] the sons of Israel servants; My servants they [are], whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I, Jehovah, [am] your God.

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.