Leviticus 25
25
The Sabbath Year
1The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai. He said, 2“Speak to the Israelites. Tell them, ‘You will enter the land I am going to give you. When you do, you must honor the Lord every seventh year by not farming the land that year. 3For six years plant your fields. Trim the branches in your vineyards and gather your crops. 4But the seventh year must be a year of sabbath rest for the land. The land must rest during it. It is a sabbath year to honor the Lord. Do not plant your fields. Do not trim the branches in your vineyards. 5Do not gather what grows without being planted. And do not gather the grapes from the vines you have not taken care of. The land must have a year of rest. 6Anything the land produces during the sabbath year will be food for you. It will be for you and your male and female servants. Your hired workers will eat it. So will people who live with you for a while. 7And so will your livestock and the wild animals that are in your land. Anything the land produces can be eaten.
The Year of Jubilee
8“ ‘Count off seven sabbath years. Count off seven times seven years. The seven sabbath years add up to a total of 49 years. 9The tenth day of the seventh month is the day when sin is paid for. On that day blow the trumpet all through your land. 10Set the 50th year apart. Announce freedom all over the land to everyone who lives there. The 50th year will be a Year of Jubilee for you. Each of you must return to your own family property. And each of you must return to your own tribe. 11The 50th year will be a Year of Jubilee for you. Do not plant anything. Do not gather what grows without being planted. And do not gather the grapes from the vines you have not taken care of. 12It is a Year of Jubilee. It will be holy for you. Eat only what the fields produce.
13“ ‘In the Year of Jubilee all of you must return to your own property.
14“ ‘Suppose you sell land to any of your own people. Or you buy land from them. Then do not take advantage of each other. 15The price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last Year of Jubilee. Here is how the price you charge must be decided. It must be based on the number of years left for gathering crops before the next Year of Jubilee. 16When there are many years left, you must raise the price. When there are only a few years left, you must lower the price. That is because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops the land will produce. 17Do not take advantage of each other. Instead, have respect for your God. I am the Lord your God.
18“ ‘Follow my rules. Be careful to obey my laws. Then you will live safely in the land. 19The land will produce its fruit. You will eat as much as you want. And you will live there in safety. 20Suppose you say, “In the seventh year we will not plant anything or gather our crops. So what will we eat?” 21I will send you a great blessing in the sixth year. The land will produce enough for three years. 22While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat food from the old crop. You will continue to eat food from it until the crops from the ninth year are gathered.
23“ ‘The land must not be sold without a way of getting it back. That is because it belongs to me. You are only outsiders and strangers in my land. 24You must make sure that you can buy the land back. That applies to all the land that belongs to you.
25“ ‘Suppose one of your own people becomes poor. And suppose they have to sell some of their land. Then their nearest relative must come and buy back what they have sold. 26But suppose they do not have anyone to buy it back for them. And suppose things go well for them and they earn enough money to buy it back themselves. 27Then they must decide how much the crops have become worth since the time they sold the land. They must take that amount off the price the land was sold for. They must give the one selling it back to them the money that is left. Then they can go back to their own property. 28But suppose they have not earned enough money to pay them back. Then the buyer they sold the land to will keep it until the Year of Jubilee. At that time it will be returned to them. Then they can go back to their property.
29“ ‘Suppose someone sells a house in a city that has a wall around it. Then for a full year after they sell it they have the right to buy it back. 30But suppose they do not buy it back before the full year has passed. Then the house in the walled city will continue to belong to the buyer and the buyer’s children. It will not be returned to the seller in the Year of Jubilee. 31But houses in villages that do not have walls around them must be treated like property outside walled cities. Those houses can be bought back at any time. And they must be returned in the Year of Jubilee.
32“ ‘The Levites always have the right to buy back their houses in the towns that belong to them. 33So their property among the Israelites can be bought back. That applies to a house sold in any of their towns. Any house that is sold must be returned to its original owner in the Year of Jubilee. That is because the houses of the Levites will always belong to them. 34But the grasslands around their towns must never be sold. They will belong to them for all time to come.
35“ ‘Suppose any of your own people become poor. And suppose they can’t take care of themselves. Then help them just as you would help an outsider or a stranger. In that way, the poor can continue to live among you. 36Do not charge them interest of any kind. Instead, have respect for God. Then those who have become poor can continue to live among you. 37If you lend them money, you must not charge them interest. And you must not sell them food for more than it cost you. 38I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt. I did it to give you the land of Canaan. I wanted to be your God.
39“ ‘Suppose any of your own people become poor. And suppose they sell themselves to you. Then do not make them work as slaves. 40You must treat them like hired workers. Or you must treat them like those living among you for a while. They must work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41Then they and their children must be set free. They will go back to their own tribes. They will go back to the property their people have always owned. 42The Israelites are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. So they must not be sold as slaves. 43Show them pity when you rule over them. Have respect for God.
44“ ‘You must get your male and female slaves from the nations that are around you. You can buy slaves from them. 45You can also buy as slaves some of the people living among you for a while. You can also buy members of their families born among you. They will become your property. 46You can leave them to your children as their share of your property. You can make them slaves for life. But when you rule over your own people, you must be kind to them.
47“ ‘Suppose an outsider living among you for a while becomes rich. Then suppose any of your own people become poor. Then they sell themselves to the outsider living among you. Or they sell themselves to a member of the outsider’s family. 48Then they keep the right to buy themselves back after they have sold themselves. One of their relatives can buy them back. 49An uncle or a cousin can buy them back after they have sold themselves. In fact, any relative in their tribe can do it. Or suppose things go well for them. Then they can buy themselves back. 50They and their buyer must count the number of years from the time of the sale up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for their freedom must be based on the amount paid to a hired man for that number of years. 51Suppose there are many years until the Year of Jubilee. Then for their freedom they must pay a larger share of the price paid for them. 52But suppose there are only a few years left until the Year of Jubilee. Then they must count the number of years that are left. The payment for their freedom must be based on that number. 53They must be treated as workers hired from year to year. You must make sure that those they must work for are kind to them when they rule over them.
54“ ‘Suppose they are not bought back in any of those ways. Then they and their children must still be set free in the Year of Jubilee. 55That’s because the Israelites belong to me. They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
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Leviticus 25: NIrV
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Leviticus 25
25
The Sabbath Year
1Then#Or “And” Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai,#Literally “the mountain of Sinai” saying, 2“Speak to the Israelites,#Literally “sons/children of Israel” and say to them, ‘When you#Plural come into the land that I am about to give to you,#Plural then#Or “and” the land shall observe a Sabbath for Yahweh. 3Six years you#Singular throughout this verse shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and you shall gather its yield. 4But#Or “And” in the seventh year it shall be a Sabbath of complete rest#Literally “a Sabbath of ‘Sabbathation.’ ” “Sabbathation” is not a real word, but it is devised as an attempt to convey the sounds of the related nouns in the Hebrew phrase for the land—a Sabbath for Yahweh; you#Singular throughout this verse must not sow your field, and you must not prune your vineyard. 5You#Singular throughout this verse must not reap your harvest’s aftergrowth, and you must not harvest the grapes of your unpruned vines—it shall be a year of complete rest#Literally “a year of a rest period” for the land. 6And a Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you:#Plural for you#Singular here and through the rest of this verse and for your slave and for your slave woman and for your hired worker and for your temporary residents#Collective singular; Hebrew “temporary resident” who are dwelling as aliens with you; 7and all its yield shall be for your#Singular throughout this verse domestic animal and for the wild animal, which are in your land to eat.
The Year of Jubilee
8“ ‘And you#Singular throughout this verse shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and they shall be for you time periods of#Literally “days of” years: forty-nine#Literally “nine and forty” years. 9And you#Singular shall cause a loud horn blast#Literally “a ram’s horn of a blast” to be heard on the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you#Plural shall cause a ram’s horn to be heard in all your#Plural land. 10And you#Plural throughout this verse shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. It is a Jubilee; it shall be for you, and you shall return. You must return—everyone to his property and everyone to his clan.#Or “each of you must return to his property and to his clan” 11You#Plural throughout this verse shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee;#Literally “a Jubilee it the year of the fiftieth year it shall be for you” you must not reap its aftergrowth, and you must not harvest its unpruned vines. 12Because it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You must eat its#That is, the field’s produce from the field.
13“ ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you#Plural shall return#Literally “you shall return a man” or “you shall return everyone” to his property. 14And when you#Plural sell something to your#Singular fellow citizen or you buy from your#Singular neighbor’s hand, you#Plural must not oppress one another.#Literally “a man his brother” 15You#Singular throughout this verse must buy from your fellow citizen according to the number of years after the Jubilee; he must sell to you according to the number of years of yield. 16You#Singular throughout this verse must increase its price according to a greater number of years,#Literally “to the mouth of many of the years” but#Or “and” you must decrease its price according to a lesser number of years,#Literally “to the mouth of few of the years” because he is selling its yields to you. 17And you#Plural must not oppress one another,#Literally “a man his citizen” but#Or “and” you#Singular shall revere your God, because I am Yahweh, your#Plural God.
18“ ‘And you#Plural throughout this verse shall do my statutes, and you must keep my regulations, and you shall do them, so that#Or “and” you shall live securely#Literally “with confidence” on the land. 19And the land shall give its fruit, and you#Plural throughout this verse shall eat your fill,#Literally “to contentment” and you shall live securely#Literally “with confidence” on it. 20And if you#Plural should say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if#Literally “look” we do not sow and we do not gather its yield?” 21then#Or “and” I will command my blessing for you#Plural in the sixth year, so that#Or “and” it will make#Or “produce” the yield for three years. 22And you#Plural throughout this verse will sow in the eighth year, and you shall eat from the old yield;#The verse divides here until the ninth year, until the coming of its yield, you shall eat the old yield.
23“ ‘But#Or “And” the land must not be sold in#Or “for” perpetuity, because the land is mine, because you#Plural are aliens and temporary residents with me. 24And in all your#Plural property’s land you#Plural must provide redemption for the land.
25“ ‘When your#Singular brother becomes poor and he sells part of his property, then#Or “and” his nearest redeemer#Literally “his redeemer the nearest to him” shall come, and he shall redeem the thing sold by his brother. 26But#Or “And” if#Or “when” a man does not have#Literally “it is not for him” a redeemer, then#Or “and” he prospers#Literally “his hand produces” and he finds enough for his redemption, 27then#Or “and” he shall calculate the years of its selling, and he shall refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his property. 28But#Or “And” if his hand does not find enough to refund to him, then#Or “and” what he has sold#Literally “his thing sold” shall be in the buyer’s hand until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall go out of the buyer’s hand#Meaning derived from context; an alternative translation could be “shall not be released” (cf. NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NJPS) or “shall not revert” (NASB, NET) in the Jubilee, and he shall return to his property.
29“ ‘And if a man sells a residential house in a walled city,#Literally “a house of a dwelling of a city wall” then#Or “and” it shall be his redemption until completing a year after his selling;#Literally “a year of his selling” its redemption shall last#Literally “shall be” a year.#Literally “days” 30But#Or “And” if it is not redeemed before a full year has passed,#Literally “until the fulfilling of for him/it an entire year” then#Or “and” the house that is in the walled city#Literally “in the city that for it a wall” shall belong to the buyer in#Hebrew “for” perpetuity throughout his generations; it shall not go out of the buyer’s hand#Meaning derived from context; an alternative translation could be “shall not be released” (cf. NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NJPS) or “shall not revert” (NASB, NET) in the Jubilee. 31However,#Or “And” or “But” village houses that have no surrounding wall shall be considered open country;#Literally “the field of the land” there is redemption for it, and in the Jubilee it shall go out of the buyer’s hand.#Meaning derived from context; an alternative translation could be “shall not be released” (cf. NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NJPS) or “shall not revert” (NASB, NET)
32“ ‘As for#Or “And” the cities of the Levites, that is, the houses in#Hebrew “of” their property’s cities, it shall be a lasting redemption#Or “a permanent redemption”; literally “redemption of eternity” or “redemption of long duration” for the Levites. 33And whatever anyone redeems from the Levites then#Or “and” must go out of the buyer’s hand#Meaning derived from context; an alternative translation could be “shall not be released” (cf. NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NJPS) or “shall not revert” (NASB, NET) in the Jubilee, including a house’s selling in his city’s property,#Literally “the city of his property” because the houses in#Hebrew “of” the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites.#Literally “sons/children of Israel” 34But#Or “And” a#Hebrew “the” field of their cities’ pastureland must not be sold, because it is their property for all time.#Literally “a property of eternity it is for them” or “a property of long duration it is for them”
35“ ‘And if your#Singular throughout this verse countryman#Or “brother” becomes poor and if he becomes dependent on you,#Literally “and his hand is shaky with you” then#Or “and” you shall support him like an alien and like a temporary resident, and he shall live with you. 36You#Singular throughout this verse must not take interest or#Or “and” usury from him, but#Or “and” you shall revere your God, and your countryman#Or “brother” shall live with you. 37You#Singular throughout this verse must not give your money to him with interest or#Or “and” give your food for#Or “in” or “with” profit. 38I am Yahweh your#Plural throughout this verse God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you#Literally “to you” the land of Canaan, to be as God for you.
39“ ‘And if your#Singular throughout this verse countryman#Or “brother” who is with you becomes poor, and he is sold to you, you shall not treat him as a slave.#Literally “you shall not let him work the work of a slave” or “you shall not enslave him the work of a slave” 40He shall be with you like a hired worker, like a temporary resident; he shall work with you until the Year of Jubilee. 41And he and his sons with him shall go out from you, and he shall return to his clan, and to the property of his ancestors#Or “fathers” he shall return. 42Because they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they shall not be sold as a slave.#Literally “a selling of a slave” 43You#Singular throughout this verse shall not rule over him with ruthlessness, but#Or “and” you shall revere your God.
44“ ‘As for#Or “And” your#Singular slave and your#Singular slave woman who are#Or “may be” (permission; cf. NASU, ESV, NRSV) or “can be” (ability) yours,#Singular from the nations that are all around you,#Plural from them you#Plural may buy a slave or#Or “and” a slave woman. 45And you#Plural throughout this verse may buy also from the children#Or “sons” of the temporary residents who are dwelling with you as aliens and from their clan who are with you, who have children in your land; indeed,#Or “and” they may be as property for you. 46And you#Plural may pass them on as an inheritance to your#Plural sons#Or “children” after you#Plural to take possession of as property for all time#Literally “to eternity” or “forever” or “for a long duration”—you#Plural may let them work. But#Or “And” as for your#Plural countrymen,#Or “brothers” the Israelites,#Literally “sons/children of Israel” you#Singular shall not rule with ruthlessness over one another.#Literally “a man over his brother”
47“ ‘And if the alien or#Or “and” the temporary resident who are with you#Singular throughout this verse prosper,#Literally “the hand produces” but#Or “and” your countryman#Or “brother” who is with him becomes poor and he is sold to an alien, a temporary resident who is with you, or to a descendant of an alien’s clan, 48after he is sold redemption shall be for him; one of his brothers may redeem him, 49or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of#Literally “from” his close relatives#Literally “the direct relative of his flesh” from his clan may redeem him; or if he prospers,#Literally “his hand produces” he may redeem himself. 50And he shall calculate with his buyer from the year of his selling himself#Literally “his being sold for him” until the Jubilee; and the value of his selling shall be according to the number of years—it shall be with him like#Or “as” a hired worker’s days. 51If there are still many years, in keeping with them#Literally “to the mouth of them” he shall restore his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.#Literally “from the price of his acquisition” 52And if there are a few years left until the Year of Jubilee, then#Or “and” he shall calculate for himself; he shall restore his redemption according to the number of his years.#Literally “according to the mouth of his years” 53He shall be with him as a yearly hired worker;#Literally “as a hired worker of a year in a year” he shall not rule over him with ruthlessness in your#Singular sight.#Literally “to your eyes” or “for your eyes” 54And if he is not redeemed by#Or “in” any of these ways,#Bracketed words provided from the sense of the context then#Or “and” he and his sons with him shall go out in the Year of Jubilee. 55Indeed,#Emphatic use of כִּי, since there is no indication of direct causation to only what precedes in vv. 47–54; or “Because” the Israelites#Literally “sons/children of Israel” are servants for me; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your#Plural God.’ ”
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