ויקרא 25

1 וידבר יהוה אל משה בהר סיני לאמר

Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,

2 דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם כי תבאו אל הארץ אשר אני נתן לכם--ושבתה הארץ שבת ליהוה

“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 שש שנים תזרע שדך ושש שנים תזמר כרמך ואספת את תבואתה

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

4 ובשנה השביעת שבת שבתון יהיה לארץ--שבת ליהוה שדך לא תזרע וכרמך לא תזמר

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 את ספיח קצירך לא תקצור ואת ענבי נזירך לא תבצר שנת שבתון יהיה לארץ

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 והיתה שבת הארץ לכם לאכלה--לך ולעבדך ולאמתך ולשכירך ולתושבך הגרים עמך

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 ולבהמתך--ולחיה אשר בארצך תהיה כל תבואתה לאכל

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

8 וספרת לך שבע שבתת שנים--שבע שנים שבע פעמים והיו לך ימי שבע שבתת השנים תשע וארבעים שנה

‘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 והעברת שופר תרועה בחדש השבעי בעשור לחדש ביום הכפרים תעבירו שופר בכל ארצכם

10 וקדשתם את שנת החמשים שנה וקראתם דרור בארץ לכל ישביה יובל הוא תהיה לכם ושבתם איש אל אחזתו ואיש אל משפחתו תשבו

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 יובל הוא שנת החמשים שנה--תהיה לכם לא תזרעו--ולא תקצרו את ספיחיה ולא תבצרו את נזריה

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 כי יובל הוא קדש תהיה לכם מן השדה--תאכלו את תבואתה

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 בשנת היובל הזאת תשבו איש אל אחזתו

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

14 וכי תמכרו ממכר לעמיתך או קנה מיד עמיתך--אל תונו איש את אחיו

‘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 במספר שנים אחר היובל תקנה מאת עמיתך במספר שני תבואת ימכר לך

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 לפי רב השנים תרבה מקנתו ולפי מעט השנים תמעיט מקנתו כי מספר תבואת הוא מכר לך

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 ולא תונו איש את עמיתו ויראת מאלהיך כי אני יהוה אלהיכם

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

18 ועשיתם את חקתי ואת משפטי תשמרו ועשיתם אתם--וישבתם על הארץ לבטח

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

19 ונתנה הארץ פריה ואכלתם לשבע וישבתם לבטח עליה

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

20 וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעת הן לא נזרע ולא נאסף את תבואתנו

But you may ask, “If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?”

21 וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים

[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 וזרעתם את השנה השמינת ואכלתם מן התבואה ישן עד השנה התשיעת עד בוא תבואתה--תאכלו ישן

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 והארץ לא תמכר לצמתת--כי לי הארץ כי גרים ותושבים אתם עמדי

‘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 ובכל ארץ אחזתכם גאלה תתנו לארץ

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 כי ימוך אחיך ומכר מאחזתו--ובא גאלו הקרב אליו וגאל את ממכר אחיו

‘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 ואיש כי לא יהיה לו גאל והשיגה ידו ומצא כדי גאלתו

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 וחשב את שני ממכרו והשיב את העדף לאיש אשר מכר לו ושב לאחזתו

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 ואם לא מצאה ידו די השיב לו--והיה ממכרו ביד הקנה אתו עד שנת היובל ויצא ביבל ושב לאחזתו

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 ואיש כי ימכר בית מושב עיר חומה--והיתה גאלתו עד תם שנת ממכרו ימים תהיה גאלתו

‘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 ואם לא יגאל עד מלאת לו שנה תמימה--וקם הבית אשר בעיר אשר לא (לו) חמה לצמיתת לקנה אתו לדרתיו לא יצא ביבל

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 ובתי החצרים אשר אין להם חמה סביב--על שדה הארץ יחשב גאלה תהיה לו וביבל יצא

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 וערי הלוים--בתי ערי אחזתם גאלת עולם תהיה ללוים

‘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 ואשר יגאל מן הלוים ויצא ממכר בית ועיר אחזתו ביבל כי בתי ערי הלוים הוא אחזתם בתוך בני ישראל

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 ושדה מגרש עריהם לא ימכר כי אחזת עולם הוא להם

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

35 וכי ימוך אחיך ומטה ידו עמך--והחזקת בו גר ותושב וחי עמך

‘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 אל תקח מאתו נשך ותרבית ויראת מאלהיך וחי אחיך עמך

[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 את כספך--לא תתן לו בנשך ובמרבית לא תתן אכלך

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 אני יהוה אלהיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים--לתת לכם את ארץ כנען להיות לכם לאלהים

[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 וכי ימוך אחיך עמך ונמכר לך--לא תעבד בו עבדת עבד

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

40 כשכיר כתושב יהיה עמך עד שנת היבל יעבד עמך

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 ויצא מעמך--הוא ובניו עמו ושב אל משפחתו ואל אחזת אבתיו ישוב

During that year, you must free him, and he will go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned.

42 כי עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אתם מארץ מצרים לא ימכרו ממכרת עבד

[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 לא תרדה בו בפרך ויראת מאלהיך

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

44 ועבדך ואמתך אשר יהיו לך מאת הגוים אשר סביבתיכם--מהם תקנו עבד ואמה

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

45 וגם מבני התושבים הגרים עמכם מהם תקנו וממשפחתם אשר עמכם אשר הולידו בארצכם והיו לכם לאחזה

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 והתנחלתם אתם לבניכם אחריכם לרשת אחזה--לעלם בהם תעבדו ובאחיכם בני ישראל איש באחיו לא תרדה בו בפרך

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 וכי תשיג יד גר ותושב עמך ומך אחיך עמו ונמכר לגר תושב עמך או לעקר משפחת גר

‘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 אחרי נמכר גאלה תהיה לו אחד מאחיו יגאלנו

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 או דדו או בן דדו יגאלנו או משאר בשרו ממשפחתו יגאלנו או השיגה ידו ונגאל

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 וחשב עם קנהו משנת המכרו לו עד שנת היבל והיה כסף ממכרו במספר שנים כימי שכיר יהיה עמו

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 אם עוד רבות בשנים--לפיהן ישיב גאלתו מכסף מקנתו

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 ואם מעט נשאר בשנים עד שנת היבל--וחשב לו כפי שניו ישיב את גאלתו

If there are only a few years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay a smaller amount to be released.

53 כשכיר שנה בשנה יהיה עמו לא ירדנו בפרך לעיניך

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 ואם לא יגאל באלה--ויצא בשנת היבל הוא ובניו עמו

‘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 כי לי בני ישראל עבדים--עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים אני יהוה אלהיכם

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