The Bible

Leviticus Chapter 25

¹Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ²"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you enter the land that I am giving you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. ³Sow your field for six years, and prune your vineyard for six years, and gather in its fruits; ⁴but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. Don't sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵What grows of itself in your harvest you mustn't reap, and you mustn't gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ⁶The Sabbath of the land will [produce] 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. ⁷All its produce will be for food; also for your livestock, and for the animals that are in your land.

⁸"'Count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and these will be for you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, [making] forty-nine years. ⁹Then sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰Make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It is a jubilee for you. Each of you should return to his own property, and each of you should return to his family. ¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. You mustn't sow, or reap what grows by itself in it. Don't gather from the undressed vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. Eat of the produce from the field.

¹³"'In this Year of Jubilee each of you is to return to his property.

¹⁴"'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you mustn't wrong one another. ¹⁵Buy from your neighbor according to the number of years after the Jubilee. He shall sell to you according to the number of years of the crops. ¹⁶Increase its price according to the length of the years, and according to the shortness of the years reduce its price; for he is selling you the number of crops. ¹⁷Don't wrong one another, but fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.

¹⁸"'Therefore do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you will live in the land in safety. ¹⁹The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and live in it in safety. ²⁰If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our crop;" ²¹then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years. ²²Sow [in] the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old store until the ninth year. You will eat from the old store until its fruits come in.

²³"'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. ²⁴In all the land of your possession grant a redemption for the land.

²⁵"'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷then 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. ²⁸But if he isn't 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.

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. ³⁰If it isn't 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. ³¹But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be included with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

³²"'Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time. ³³The 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. ³⁴But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

³⁵"'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support himself among you, then you will uphold him. He'll live with you like a foreigner and a temporary resident. ³⁶Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you. ³⁷Don't lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ³⁸I am Yahweh your God, who brought you here from the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

³⁹"'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you mustn't make him serve as a slave. ⁴⁰He shall be with you as a hired servant, and as a temporary resident; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹then 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. ⁴²For they are my servants, whom I brought here from the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³Don't rule over him with harshness, but shall fear 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. ⁴⁵In addition, you may buy from the children of the foreigners who live among you, from them, and from their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. ⁴⁶You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. You may take your slaves from them forever, but you mustn't rule over your brothers the children of Israel, one over another, with harshness.

⁴⁷"'If a foreigner 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, ⁴⁸after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; ⁴⁹or 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. ⁵⁰He 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. ⁵¹If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption from the money that he was bought for. ⁵²If 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. ⁵³He shall be with him as a servant hired year by year. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. ⁵⁴If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him. ⁵⁵For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought here from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.