Leviticus 25

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.

“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.

3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

You must plant your field for six years, and for six years you must prune your vineyard and gather the produce.

4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

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.

5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: [for] it is a year of rest unto the land.

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.

6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

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,

7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that [are] in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

and your livestock and also wild animals may eat whatever the land produces.

8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

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.

9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth [day] of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

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.

10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout [all] the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

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.

11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of thy vine undressed.

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.

12 For it [is] the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

For it is a Jubilee, which will be holy for you. You must eat the produce that grows by itself out of the fields.

13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

You must return everyone to his own property in this year of Jubilee.

14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest [ought] of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

If you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any land from your neighbor, you must not cheat or wrong each other.

15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, [and] according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:

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.

16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for [according] to the number [of the years] of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

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.

17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I [am] the LORD your God.

You must not cheat or wrong one another; instead, you must honor your God, for I am Yahweh your God.

18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

Therefore you must obey my decrees, keep my laws, and carry them out. Then you will live in the land in safety.

19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

The land will yield its produce, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.

20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

You might say, “What will we eat during the seventh year? Look, we cannot plant or gather our produce.”

21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

I will command my blessing to come upon you in the sixth year, and it will produce harvest enough for three years.

22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat [yet] of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat [of] the old [store].

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.

23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land [is] mine; for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me.

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.

24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

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.

25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away [some] of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

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.

26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

If a man has no relative to redeem his property, but if he has prospered and has the ability to redeem it,

27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.

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.

28 But if he be not able to restore [it] to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

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.

29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; [within] a full year may he redeem it.

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.

30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that [is] in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.

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.

31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.

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.

32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, [and] the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

However, the houses owned by the Levites in their cities may be redeemed at any time.

33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in [the year of] jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites [are] their possession among the children of Israel.

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.

34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it [is] their perpetual possession.

But the fields around their cities may not be sold because they are the permanent property of the Levites.

35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: [yea, though he be] a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

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.

36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

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.

37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

You must not give him a loan of money and charge interest, nor sell him your food to earn a profit.

38 I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God.

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.

39 And if thy brother [that dwelleth] by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

If your fellow countryman has become poor and sells himself to you, you must not make him work like a slave.

40 [But] as an hired servant, [and] as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, [and] shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:

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.

41 And [then] shall he depart from thee, [both] he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

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.

42 For they [are] my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They will not be sold as slaves.

43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

You must not rule over them harshly, but you must honor your God.

44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, [shall be] of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

As for your male and female slaves, whom you can obtain from the nations who live around you, you may buy slaves from them.

45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that [are] with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

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.

46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit [them for] a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.

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.

47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother [that dwelleth] by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger [or] sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family:

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,

48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

after your fellow Israelite has been bought, he may be bought back. Someone in his family may redeem him.

49 Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or [any] that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.

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.

50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.

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.

51 If [there be] yet many years [behind], according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

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.

52 And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, [and] according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.

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.

53 [And] as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: [and the other] shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

He is to be treated like a man hired year by year. You must make sure he is not treated with harshness.

54 And if he be not redeemed in these [years], then he shall go out in the year of jubile, [both] he, and his children with him.

If he is not redeemed by these means, then he must serve until the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

55 For unto me the children of Israel [are] servants; they [are] my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.

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.'”