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
1And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in mount Sinai, saying,
2‘Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye come in unto the land which I am giving to you, then hath the land kept a sabbath to Jehovah.
3‘Six years thou dost sow thy field, and six years thou dost prune thy vineyard, and hast gathered its increase,
4and in the seventh year a sabbath of rest is to the land, a sabbath to Jehovah; thy field thou dost not sow, and thy vineyard thou dost not prune;
5the spontaneous growth of thy harvest thou dost not reap, and the grapes of thy separated thing thou dost not gather, a year of rest it is to the land.
6‘And the sabbath of the land hath been to you for food, to thee, and to thy manservant, and to thy handmaid, and to thy hireling, and to thy settler, who are sojourning with thee;
7and to thy cattle, and to the beast which [is] in thy land, is all thine increase for food.
8‘And thou hast numbered to thee seven sabbaths of years, seven years seven times, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years have been to thee nine and forty years,
9and thou hast caused a trumpet of shouting to pass over in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month; in the day of the atonements ye do cause a trumpet to pass over through all your land;
10and ye have hallowed the year, the fiftieth year; and ye have proclaimed liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; a jubilee it is to you; and ye have turned back each unto his possession; yea, each unto his family ye do turn back.
11‘A jubilee it [is], the fiftieth year, a year it is to you; ye sow not, nor reap its spontaneous growth, nor gather its separated things;
12for a jubilee it [is], holy it is to you; out of the field ye eat its increase;
13in the year of this jubilee ye turn back each unto his possession.
14‘And when thou sellest anything to thy fellow, or buyest from the hand of thy fellow, ye do not oppress one another;
15by the number of years after the jubilee thou dost buy from thy fellow; by the number of the years of increase he doth sell to thee;
16according to the multitude of the years thou dost multiply its price, and according to the fewness of the years thou dost diminish its price; for a number of increases he is selling to thee;
17and ye do not oppress one another, and thou hast been afraid of thy God; for I [am] Jehovah your God.
18‘And ye have done My statutes, and My judgments ye keep, and have done them, and ye have dwelt on the land confidently,
19and the land hath given its fruit, and ye have eaten to satiety, and have dwelt confidently on it.
20‘And when ye say, What do we eat in the seventh year, lo, we do not sow, nor gather our increase?
21then I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it hath made the increase for three years;
22and ye have sown the eighth year, and have eaten of the old increase; until the ninth year, until the coming in of its increase, ye do eat the old.
23‘And the land is not sold — to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for sojourners and settlers [are] ye with Me;
24and in all the land of your possession a redemption ye do give to the land.
25‘When thy brother becometh poor, and hath sold his possession, then hath his redeemer who is near unto him come, and he hath redeemed the sold thing of his brother;
26and when a man hath no redeemer, and his own hand hath attained, and he hath found as sufficient [for] its redemption,
27then he hath reckoned the years of its sale, and hath given back that which is over to the man to whom he sold [it], and he hath returned to his possession.
28‘And if his hand hath not found sufficiency to give back to him, then hath his sold thing been in the hand of him who buyeth it till the year of jubilee; and it hath gone out in the jubilee, and he hath returned to his possession.
29‘And when a man selleth a dwelling-house [in] a walled city, then hath his right of redemption been until the completion of a year from its selling; days — is his right of redemption;
30and if it is not redeemed until the fulness to him of a perfect year, then hath the house which [is] in a walled city been established to extinction to the buyer of it, to his generations; it goeth not out in the jubilee;
31and a house of the villages which have no wall round about, on the field of the country is reckoned; redemption is to it, and in the jubilee it goeth out.
32‘As to cities of the Levites — houses of the cities of their possession — redemption age-during is to the Levites;
33as to him who redeemeth from the Levites, both the sale of a house and the city of his possession have gone out in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel.
34And a field, a suburb of their cities, is not sold; for a possession age-during it [is] to them.
35‘And when thy brother is become poor, and his hand hath failed with thee, then thou hast kept hold on him, sojourner and settler, and he hath lived with thee;
36thou takest no usury from him, or increase; and thou hast been afraid of thy God; and thy brother hath lived with thee;
37thy money thou givest not to him in usury, and for increase thou givest not thy food;
38I [am] Jehovah your God, who hath brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give to you the land of Canaan, to become your God.
39‘And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service;
40as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, —
41then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back.
42‘For they [are] My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold [with] the sale of a servant;
43thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God.
44‘And thy man-servant and thy handmaid whom thou hast [are] of the nations who [are] round about you; of them ye buy man-servant and handmaid,
45and also of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, of them ye buy, and of their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession;
46and ye have taken them for inheritance to your sons after you, to occupy [for] a possession; to the age ye lay service upon them, but upon your brethren, the sons of Israel, one with another, thou dost not rule over him with rigour.
47‘And when the hand of a sojourner or settler with thee attaineth [riches], and thy brother with him hath become poor, and he hath been sold to a sojourner, a settler with thee, or to the root of the family of a sojourner,
48after he hath been sold, there is a right of redemption to him; one of his brethren doth redeem him,
49or his uncle, or a son of his uncle, doth redeem him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, doth redeem him, or — his own hand hath attained — then he hath been redeemed.
50‘And he hath reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him till the year of jubilee, and the money of his sale hath been by the number of years; as the days of an hireling it is with him.
51‘If yet many years, according to them he giveth back his redemption [money], from the money of his purchase.
52‘And if few are left of the years till the year of jubilee, then he hath reckoned with him, according to his years he doth give back his redemption [money];
53as an hireling, year by year, he is with him, and he doth not rule him with rigour before thine eyes.
54‘And if he is not redeemed in these [years], then he hath gone out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.
55For to Me [are] the sons of Israel servants; My servants they [are], whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I, Jehovah, [am] your God.
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