Leviticus 25
25
The Time of Rest for the Land
1The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2“Tell the people of Israel this: ‘When you enter the land I will give you, let it have a special time of rest, to honor the Lord. 3You may plant seed in your field for six years, and you may trim your vineyards for six years and bring in their fruits. 4But during the seventh year, you must let the land rest. This will be a special time to honor the Lord. You must not plant seed in your field or trim your vineyards. 5You must not cut the crops that grow by themselves after harvest, or gather the grapes from your vines that are not trimmed. The land will have a year of rest.
6“ ‘You may eat whatever the land produces during that year of rest. It will be food for your men and women servants, for your hired workers, and for the foreigners living in your country. 7It will also be food for your cattle and the wild animals of your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
The Year of Jubilee
8“ ‘Count off seven groups of seven years, or forty-nine years. During that time there will be seven years of rest for the land. 9On the Day of Cleansing, you must blow the horn of a male sheep; this will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. You must blow the horn through the whole country. 10Make the fiftieth year a special year, and announce freedom for all the people living in your country. This time will be called Jubilee. You will each go back to your own property, each to your own family and family group. 11The fiftieth year will be a special time for you to celebrate. Don’t plant seeds, or harvest the crops that grow by themselves, or gather grapes from the vines that are not trimmed. 12That year is Jubilee; it will be a holy time for you. You may eat only the crops that come from the field. 13In the year of Jubilee you each must go back to your own property.
14“ ‘If you sell your land to your neighbor, or if you buy land from your neighbor, don’t cheat each other. 15If you want to buy your neighbor’s land, count the number of years since the last Jubilee, and use that number to decide the right price. If your neighbor sells the land to you, count the number of years left for harvesting crops, and use that number to decide the right price. 16If there are many years, the price will be high. But if there are only a few years, lower the price, because your neighbor is really selling only a few crops to you. 17You must not cheat each other, but you must respect your God. I am the Lord your God.
18“ ‘Remember my laws and rules, and obey them so that you will live safely in the land. 19The land will give good crops to you, and you will eat as much as you want and live safely in the land.
20“ ‘But you might ask, “If we don’t plant seeds or gather crops, what will we eat the seventh year?” 21I will send you such a great blessing during the sixth year that the land will produce enough crops for three years. 22When you plant in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the old crop; you will eat the old crop until the harvest of the ninth year.
Property Laws
23“ ‘The land really belongs to me, so you can’t sell it for all time. You are only foreigners and travelers living for a while on my land. 24People might sell their land, but it must always be possible for the family to get its land back. 25If a person in your country becomes very poor and sells some land, then close relatives must come and buy it back. 26If there is not a close relative to buy the land back, but if the person makes enough money to be able to buy it back, 27the years must be counted since the land was sold. That number must be used to decide how much the first owner should pay back the one who bought it. Then the land will belong to the first owner again. 28But if there is not enough money to buy it back, the one who bought it will keep it until the year of Jubilee. During that celebration, the land will go back to the first owner’s family.
29“ ‘If someone sells a home in a walled city, for a full year after it is sold, the person has the right to buy it back. 30But if the owner does not buy back the house before a full year is over, it will belong to the one who bought it and to his future sons. The house will not go back to the first owner at Jubilee. 31But houses in small towns without walls are like open country; they can be bought back, and they must be returned to their first owner at Jubilee.
32“ ‘The Levites may always buy back their houses in the cities that belong to them. 33If someone buys a house from a Levite, that house in the Levites’ city will again belong to the Levites in the Jubilee. This is because houses in Levite cities belong to the people of Levi; the Israelites gave these cities to them. 34Also the fields and pastures around the Levites’ cities cannot be sold, because those fields belong to the Levites forever.
Rules for Slave Owners
35“ ‘If anyone from your country becomes too poor to support himself, help him to live among you as you would a stranger or foreigner. 36Do not charge him any interest on money you loan to him, but respect your God; let the poor live among you. 37Don’t lend him money for interest, and don’t try to make a profit from the food he buys. 38I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give the land of Canaan to you and to become your God.
39“ ‘If anyone from your country becomes very poor and sells himself as a slave to you, you must not make him work like a slave. 40He will be like a hired worker and a visitor with you until the year of Jubilee. 41Then he may leave you, take his children, and go back to his family and the land of his ancestors. 42This is because the Israelites are my servants, and I brought them out of slavery in Egypt. They must not become slaves again. 43You must not rule this person cruelly, but you must respect your God.
44“ ‘Your men and women slaves must come from other nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45Also you may buy as slaves children from the families of foreigners living in your land. These child slaves will belong to you, 46and you may even pass them on to your children after you die; you can make them slaves forever. But you must not rule cruelly over your own people, the Israelites.
47“ ‘Suppose a foreigner or visitor among you becomes rich. If someone in your country becomes so poor that he has to sell himself as a slave to the foreigner living among you or to a member of the foreigner’s family, 48the poor person has the right to be bought back and become free. One of his relatives may buy him back: 49His uncle, his uncle’s son, or any one of his close relatives may buy him back. Or, if he gets enough money, he may pay the money to free himself.
50“ ‘He and the one who bought him must count the time from when he sold himself up to the next year of Jubilee. Use that number to decide the price, because the person really only hired himself out for a certain number of years. 51If there are still many years before the year of Jubilee, the person must pay back a large part of the price. 52If there are only a few years left until Jubilee, the person must pay a small part of the first price. 53But he will live like a hired person with the foreigner every year; don’t let the foreigner rule cruelly over him.
54“ ‘Even if no one buys him back, at the year of Jubilee, he and his children will become free. 55This is because the people of Israel are servants to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
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Leviticus 25: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 25
25
Shabbat Year and Jubilee
1Then Adonai said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and tell them: When you come into the land which I give you, then the land is to keep a Shabbat to Adonai.
3For six years you may sow your field and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits.
4But in the seventh year there is to be a Shabbat rest for the land—a Shabbat to Adonai. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.
5You are not to reap what grows by itself during your harvest nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. It is to be a year of Shabbat rest for the land.
6Whatever the Shabbat of the land produces will be food for yourself, for your servant, for your maidservant, for your hired worker and for the outsider dwelling among you.
7Even for your livestock and for the animals that are in your land—all its increase will be enough food.
8“You are to count off seven Shabbatot of years—seven times seven years, so that the time is seven Shabbatot of years—49 years.
9Then on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom Kippur, you are to sound a shofar blast—you are to sound the shofar all throughout your land.
10You are to make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It is to be a Jubilee to you, when each of you is to return to his own property and each of you is to return to his family.
11That fiftieth year will be your Jubilee. You are not to sow, or reap that which grows by itself, or gather from the untended vines.
12Since it is a Jubilee, it is to be holy to you. You will eat from its increase out of the field.
13“In this Year of Jubilee each of you will return to his property.
14“If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you are not to wrong one another.
15Corresponding to the number of years after the Jubilee you are to purchase land from your neighbor’s hand. He is to sell it to you based on the number of years of crops.
16In proportion to the extent of years you may increase its price, or decrease its price in proportion to the fewness of years, because he is selling a number of harvests to you.
17You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Adonai your God.
18“Therefore you are to keep My statutes and observe My ordinances, and carry them out, so that you may live securely in the land.
19Then the land will yield its fruit, and you may eat your fill and live there in safety.
20Now if you ask: What are we to eat during the seventh year if, see, we are not to sow, nor gather in our increase?
21Now I will command My blessing to you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a harvest sufficient for three years.
22When you sow during the eighth year, you will still be eating the old, stored harvest until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
23“Moreover, the land is not to be sold permanently, because the land is Mine. For you are sojourners with Me.
24For any land you possess, you are to provide for redemption of the land.
25“If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his property, then his nearest kinsman may come and redeem what his brother has sold.
26If a man has no kinsman-redeemer, but he himself recovers 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. Then he will return to his property.
28But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold is to remain in the hand of the one who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. Then in the Jubilee it shall be released, so he may return to his property.
29“If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he has the right of redemption.
30But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city will belong permanently to the one who bought it throughout his generations. It will not be released in the Jubilee.
31But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them are to be considered as open country. They have redemption rights and are to be released in the Jubilee.
32“But as for the towns of the Levites, the Levites may have a permanent right of redemption for the houses in the towns of their possession.
33The Levites may redeem a house sold in the town of its possession. Also it shall be released in the Jubilee, for the houses of the Levitical towns are their possession among Bnei-Yisrael.
34But the fields in the pasturelands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.
35“If your brother has become poor and his hand cannot support himself among you, then you are to uphold him. He may live with you like an outsider or a temporary resident.
36Take no excessive interest from him, but fear your God, so that your brother can live with you.
37You are not to lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
38I am Adonai your God, who brought you forth out of 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 must not subject him to slave labor.
40Let him stay with you as a hired worker or as a temporary resident. He will work for you until the Year of Jubilee,
41then he is to be released from you—he and his children with him—and may return to his own family and to the property of his fathers.
42For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They are not to be sold in a slave sale.
43You are not to rule over him with harshness, but fear your God.
44“As for your male and female slaves whom you may acquire out of the nations that are around you—from them you may buy male and female slaves.
45You may also acquire from among the children of the foreigners dwelling among you, as well as from their families who are with you—those born in your land—they may also become your property.
46You may also leave them an inheritance for your children after you, to receive as a possession. These may become your slaves permanently. But over your brothers, Bnei-Yisrael, you must not rule over one another with harshness.
47“If an outsider or sojourner with you becomes rich, while your brother beside him has become poor and sells himself to the outsider dwelling among you or to a member of the outsider’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 anyone who is a close relative to him from his family may also redeem him. Or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.
50He is to calculate with the one who bought him, from the year that he sold himself to the Year of Jubilee, and the price of his sale will be in proportion to the number of years. Like the days of a hired worker it will be with him.
51If there are still many years, in proportion to those he is to reimburse the price of his redemption from his purchase price.
52If there remain only a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall calculate with him in proportion to his years of service he is to reimburse the price of his redemption.
53He will stay with him as a hired worker, year by year. But he is not to rule with harshness over him in your sight.
54Even if he is not redeemed by these means, then he will still be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him.
55For Bnei-Yisrael are My servants—My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Adonai your God.
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