Leviticus 25

1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

And the Lord spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying:

2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD.

Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you will have entered into the land which I will give to you, rest on the Sabbath of the Lord.

3 You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits;

For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall care for your vineyard, and you shall gather its fruits.

4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

But in the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath of the land, a resting of the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not care for your vineyard.

5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.

What the soil shall spontaneously produce, you shall not harvest. And you shall not gather the grapes of the first-fruits as a crop. For it is a year of rest for the land.

6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.

But these shall be yours for food, for you and for your men and women servants, and for your hired hands, and for the newcomers who sojourn with you:

7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.

all that grows on its own shall provide food for your beasts and cattle.

8 “‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.

You shall also number for yourselves seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven, which together makes forty-nine years.

9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.

And you shall sound the trumpet in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, at the time of the atonement, throughout all your land.

10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.

And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a remission for all the inhabitants of your land: for the same is the Jubilee. A man shall return to his possession, and each one shall go back to his original family,

11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.

for it is the Jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows in the field of its own accord, and you shall not gather the first-fruits of the crop,

12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.

due to the sanctification of the Jubilee. But you shall eat them as they present themselves.

13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.

In the year of the Jubilee, all shall return to their possessions.

14 “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.

When you will sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy anything from him, do not cause your brother grief, but buy from him according to the number of years from the Jubilee,

15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.

and he shall sell to you according to the computation of the produce.

16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.

The more years that will remain after the Jubilee, the more the price shall increase, and the less the time is numbered, so much less shall the purchase price be. For he will sell to you the time for the produce.

17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

Do not be willing to afflict your countrymen, but let each one fear his God. For I am the Lord your God.

18 “‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

Accomplish my precepts, and observe my judgments, and complete them, so that you may be able to live in the land without any fear,

19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

and so that the soil may produce its fruits for you, from which you may eat, even to fullness, dreading violence by no one.

20 If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;”

But if you will say: What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and do not gather our produce?

21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years.

I will give my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall yield the produce of three years.

22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old store until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.

And in the eighth year you shall sow, but you shall eat from the old produce, until the ninth year, until what is new matures, you shall eat what is old.

23 “‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.

Also, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is mine, and you are newcomers and settlers to me.

24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

Therefore, every region of your possession shall be sold under the condition of redemption.

25 “‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold.

If your brother, being in need, will have sold his little possession and his close relative is willing, he is able to redeem what he had sold.

26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it,

But if he has no near relative, and he himself is able to find the price to redeem it,

27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.

the produce shall be calculated from that time when he sold it. And what is lacking, he shall repay to the buyer, and so he shall receive his possession.

28 But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.

But if his hand will not have discovered a way to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the Jubilee. For in that year all that has been sold shall return to the owner, and to the original possessor.

29 “‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.

Whoever will have sold a house within the walls of a city shall have the freedom to redeem it, until one year has been completed.

30 If it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.

If he has not redeemed it, and the year will have turned full circle, the buyer and his posterity shall possess it, in perpetuity, and it is not able to be redeemed, even in the Jubilee.

31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

But if the house is in a village, which has no walls, it shall be sold by the law of the fields. If it has not been redeemed beforehand, then in the Jubilee it shall return to the owner.

32 “‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time.

The buildings of the Levites, which are in the cities, are always able to be redeemed.

33 The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

If they have not been redeemed, then in the Jubilee they shall return to the owners, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possession among the sons of Israel.

34 But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

But let not their suburbs be sold, for it is an everlasting possession.

35 “‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand cannot support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident.

If your brother has become impoverished, or infirm of hand, and you take him in, like a newcomer or a sojourner, and he lives with you,

36 Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you.

do not accept usury from him, nor anything more than what you gave. Fear your God, so that your brother may be able to live with you.

37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

You shall not give him your money by usury, nor exact from him an overabundance of produce.

38 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.

I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, so that I might give to you the land of Canaan, and so that I may be your God.

39 “‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave.

If your brother, having been compelled by poverty, will have sold himself to you, you shall not oppress him with the servitude of indentured servants.

40 As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.

But he shall be like a hired hand or a settler; he shall work with you, until the year of the Jubilee.

41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers.

And after that, he shall depart with his children, and he shall return to his kindred, to the possession of his fathers.

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

For these are my servants, and I led them away from the land of Egypt; let them not be sold into the condition of servitude.

43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

Do not afflict him by power, but be fearful of your God.

44 “‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.

Let your male and female servants be from the nations which are all around you,

45 Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.

and from the newcomers who sojourn with you, or who have been born from them in your land. These you shall have as servants,

46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

and, by the right of inheritance, you shall transmit them to your posterity, and you shall possess them forever. But do not oppress your brothers, the sons of Israel, by power.

47 “‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family,

If the hand of a newcomer or a sojourner will have grown strong among you, and your brother, having become impoverished, will have sold himself to him, or to any of his stock,

48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him;

after the sale, he is able to be redeemed. Whoever is willing among his brothers shall redeem him:

49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.

either the paternal uncle, or the paternal uncle’s son, or his close relative, by blood or by affinity. But if he himself will be able also, he shall redeem himself,

50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant.

considering only the years from the time of his selling until the year of the Jubilee, and calculating the money for which he was sold, according to the number of years and the accounting of a hired hand.

51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

If there will have been many years which remain until the Jubilee, according to these shall he also repay the price.

52 If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption.

If few, he shall determine the accounting with him according to the number of years, and he shall repay to the buyer by what is left remaining of the years;

53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.

his wages being charged by what served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight.

54 If he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him.

But if, by these means, he will not be able to be redeemed, then in the year of the Jubilee he shall depart with his children.

55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

For they are my servants, the sons of Israel, whom I led away from the land of Egypt.