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
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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