Leviticus 25

1 Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen in monte Sinai, dicens:

Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,

2 Loquere filiis Israel, et dices ad eos: Quando ingressi fueritis terram quam ego dabo vobis, sabbatizes sabbatum Domino.

“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 Sex annis seres agrum tuum, et sex annis putabis vineam tuam, colligesque fructus eius:

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

4 septimo autem anno sabbatum erit terræ, requietionis Domini: agrum non seres, et vineam non putabis.

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 Quæ sponte gignet humus, non metes: et uvas primitiarum tuarum non colliges quasi vindemiam: annus enim requietionis terræ est:

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 sed erunt vobis in cibum, tibi et servo tuo, ancillæ et mercenario tuo, et advenæ qui peregrinantur apud te:

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 iumentis tuis et pecoribus omnia quæ nascuntur, præbebunt cibum.

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

8 Numerabis quoque tibi septem hebdomadas annorum, id est, septies septem, quæ simul faciunt annos quadraginta novem:

‘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 et clanges buccina mense septimo, decima die mensis, propitiationis tempore, in universa terra vestra.

10 Sanctificabisque annum quinquagesimum, et vocabis remissionem cunctis habitatoribus terræ tuæ: ipse est enim iubilæus. Revertetur homo ad possessionem suam, et unusquisque rediet ad familiam pristinam:

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 quia iubilæus est et quinquagesimus annus. Non seretis, neque metetis sponte in agro nascentia, et primitias vindemiæ non colligetis,

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 ob sanctificationem iubilæi, sed statim oblata comedetis.

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 Anno iubilæi redient omnes ad possessiones suas.

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

14 quando vendes quippiam civi tuo, vel emes ab eo, ne contristes fratrem tuum, sed iuxta numerum annorum iubilei emes ab eo,

‘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 et iuxta supputationem frugum vendet tibi.

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 Quanto plures anni remanserint post iubilæum, tanto crescet et pretium: et quanto minus temporis numeraveris, tanto minoris et emptio constabit. tempus enim frugum vendet tibi.

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 Nolite affligere contribules vestros, sed timeat unusquisque Deum suum, quia ego Dominus Deus vester.

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

18 Facite præcepta mea, et iudicia custodite, et implete ea, ut habitare possitis in terra absque ullo pavore,

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

19 et gignat vobis humus fructus suos, quibus vescamini usque ad saturitatem, nullius impetum formidantes.

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

20 Quod si dixeritis: Quid comedemus anno septimo, si non severimus, neque collegerimus fruges nostras?

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

21 Dabo benedictionem meam vobis anno sexto, et faciet fructus trium annorum:

[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 seretisque anno octavo, et comedetis veteres fruges usque ad nonum annum: donec nova nascantur, edetis vetera.

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 Terra quoque non vendetur in perpetuum: quia mea est, et vos advenæ et coloni mei estis.

‘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 unde cuncta regio possessionis vestræ sub redemptionis conditione vendetur.

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 Si attenuatus frater tuus vendiderit possessiunculam suam, et voluerit propinquus eius, potest redimere quod ille vendiderat.

‘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 sin autem non habuerit proximum, et ipse pretium ad redimendum potuerit invenire:

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 computabuntur fructus ex eo tempore quo vendidit: et quod reliquum est, reddet emptori, sicque recipiet possessionem suam.

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 quod si non invenerit manus eius ut reddat pretium, habebit emptor quod emerat, usque ad annum iubileum. In ipso enim omnis venditio redibit ad dominum, et ad possessorem pristinum.

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 Qui vendiderit domum intra urbis muros, habebit licentiam redimendi, donec unus impleatur annus.

‘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 si non redemerit, et anni circulus fuerit evolutus, emptor possidebit eam, et posteri eius in perpetuum, et redimi non poterit, etiam in iubileo.

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 Sin autem in villa domus, quæ muros non habet, agrorum iure vendetur. si ante redempta non fuerit, in iubileo revertetur ad dominum.

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 Ædes Levitarum, quæ in urbibus sunt, semper possunt redimi:

‘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 si redemptæ non fuerint, in iubileo revertentur ad dominos, quia domus urbium Levitarum pro possessionibus sunt inter filios Israel.

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 Suburbana autem eorum non veneant, quia possessio sempiterna est.

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

35 Si attenuatus fuerit frater tuus, et infirmus manu, et susceperis eum quasi advenam, et peregrinum, et vixerit tecum,

‘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 ne accipias usuras ab eo, nec amplius quam dedisti. Time Deum tuum, ut vivere possit frater tuus apud te.

[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 Pecuniam tuam non dabis ei ad usuram, et frugum superabundantiam non exiges.

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 Ego Dominus Deus vester, qui eduxi vos de Terra Ægypti, ut darem vobis Terram Chanaan, et essem vester Deus.

[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 Si paupertate compulsus vendiderit se tibi frater tuus, non eum opprimes servitute famulorum,

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

40 sed quasi mercenarius et colonus erit: usque ad annum iubileum operabitur apud te,

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 et postea egredietur cum liberis suis, et revertetur ad cognationem ad possessionem patrum suorum.

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

42 mei enim servi sunt, et ego eduxi eos de Terra Ægypti. non veneant conditione servorum:

[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 ne affligas eum per potentiam, sed metuito Deum tuum.

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

44 Servus et ancilla sint vobis de nationibus quæ in circuitu vestro sunt.

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

45 Et de advenis qui peregrinantur apud vos, vel qui ex his nati fuerint in terra vestra, hos habebitis famulos:

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 et hereditario iure transmittetis ad posteros, ac possidebitis in æternum. fratres autem vestros filios Israel ne opprimatis per potentiam.

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 Si invaluerit apud vos manus advenæ atque peregrini, et attenuatus frater tuus vendiderit se ei, aut cuiquam de stirpe eius:

‘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 post venditionem potest redimi. Qui voluerit ex fratribus suis, redimet eum,

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 et patruus, et patruelis, et consanguineus, et affinis. Sin autem et ipse potuerit, redimet se,

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 supputatis dumtaxat annis a tempore venditionis suæ usque ad annum iubileum: et pecunia, qua venditus fuerat, iuxta annorum numerum et rationem mercenarii supputata.

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 Si plures fuerint anni qui remanent usque ad iubileum, secundum hos reddet et pretium.

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 si pauci, ponet rationem cum eo iuxta annorum numerum, et reddet emptori quod reliquum est annorum,

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

53 quibus ante servivit mercedibus imputatis: non affliget eum violenter in conspectu tuo.

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 Quod si per hæc redimi non potuerit, anno iubileo egredietur cum liberis suis.

‘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 Mei enim sunt servi, filii Israel, quos eduxi de Terra Ægypti.

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