Leviticus 25

1 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying:

2 “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.

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.

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

Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the produce thereof.

4 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.

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

5 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.

That which groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather; it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.

6 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,

And the sabbath-produce of the land shall be for food for you: for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for the settler by thy side that sojourn with thee;

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

and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.

8 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.

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

9 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.

Then shalt thou make proclamation with the blast of the horn on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make proclamation with the horn throughout all your land.

10 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.

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

11 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.

A jubilee 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 the undressed vines.

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

For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

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

In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.

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

And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not wrong one another.

15 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.

According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee.

16 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.

According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for the number of crops doth he sell unto thee.

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

And ye shall not wrong one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the LORD your God.

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

Wherefore ye shall do My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

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

And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat until ye have enough, and dwell therein in safety.

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

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

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

then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth produce for the three years.

22 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.

And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the produce, the old store; until the ninth year, until her produce come in, ye shall eat the old store.

23 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.

And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and settlers with Me.

24 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.

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

25 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.

If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold.

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

And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxen rich and find sufficient means to redeem it;

27 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.

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

28 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.

But if he have not sufficient means to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

29 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.

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; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.

30 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.

And if it be 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 that bought it, throughout his generations; it shall not go out in the jubilee.

31 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.

But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

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

But as for the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption.

33 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.

And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold in the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

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

But the fields of the open land about their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession.

35 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.

And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with thee.

36 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.

Take thou no interest of him or increase; but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

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

Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase.

38 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.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.

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

And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant.

40 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.

As a hired servant, and as a settler, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee.

41 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.

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

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

For they are My servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen.

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

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

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

And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou mayest have: of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

45 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.

Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them may ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land; and they may be your possession.

46 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.

And ye may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession: of them may ye take your bondmen for ever; but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with rigour.

47 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,

And if a stranger who is a settler with thee be waxen rich, and thy brother be waxen poor beside him, and sell himself unto the stranger who is a settler with thee, or to the offshoot of a stranger's family,

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

after that he is sold he may be redeemed; one of his brethren may redeem him;

49 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.

or 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 waxen rich, he may redeem himself.

50 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.

And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he sold himself to him unto the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.

51 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.

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

52 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.

And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his years shall he give back the price of his redemption.

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

As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him; he shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

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

And if he be not redeemed by any of these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him.

55 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.'”

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.