Leviticus 25
25
The Sabbath of the Seventh Year
1And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount #Lev. 26:46Sinai, saying, 2“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall #Lev. 26:34, 35keep a sabbath to the Lord. 3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; 4but in the #Deut. 15:1; Neh. 10:31seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn #(Heb. 4:9)rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5#2 Kin. 19:29What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. 6And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, 7for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.
The Year of Jubilee
8‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. 9Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; #Lev. 23:24, 27on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. 10And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and #Is. 61:2; 63:4; Jer. 34:8, 15, 17; (Luke 4:19)proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, #Lev. 25:13, 28, 54; Num. 36:4and each of you shall return to his family. 11That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it #Lev. 25:5you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. 12For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; #Lev. 25:6, 7you shall eat its produce from the field.
13#Lev. 25:10; 27:24; Num. 36:4‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. 14And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not #Lev. 19:13oppress one another. 15#Lev. 27:18, 23According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you. 16According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops. 17Therefore #Lev. 25:14; Prov. 14:31; 22:22; Jer. 7:5, 6; 1 Thess. 4:6you shall not oppress one another, #Lev. 19:14, 32; 25:43but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
Provisions for the Seventh Year
18#Lev. 19:37‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; #Lev. 26:5; Deut. 12:10; Ps. 4:8; Jer. 23:6and you will dwell in the land in safety. 19Then the land will yield its fruit, and #Lev. 26:5; Ezek. 34:25you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.
20‘And if you say, #Matt. 6:25, 31“What shall we eat in the seventh year, since #Lev. 25:4, 5we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” 21Then I will #Deut. 28:8command My blessing on you in the #Ex. 16:29sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. 22#2 Kin. 19:29And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat #Lev. 26:10; Josh. 5:11old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.
Redemption of Property
23‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for #Ex. 19:5; 2 Chr. 7:20the land is Mine; for you are #Gen. 23:4; Ex. 6:4; 1 Chr. 29:15; Ps. 39:12; Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11strangers and sojourners with Me. 24And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land.
25#Ruth 2:20; 4:4, 6‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if #Num. 5:8; Ruth 3:2, 9, 12; (Job 19:25); Jer. 32:7, 8his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. 26Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, 27then #Lev. 25:50–52let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. 28But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; #Lev. 25:10, 13and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.
29‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year he may redeem it. 30But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. 31However the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. 32Nevertheless #Num. 35:1–8; Josh. 21:2the cities of the Levites, and the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. 33And if a man purchases a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold in the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34But #Num. 35:2–5the field of the common-land of their cities may not be #Acts 4:36, 37sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
Lending to the Poor
35‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall #Deut. 15:7–11; 24:14, 15; Luke 6:35; 1 John 3:17help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. 36#Ex. 22:25; Deut. 23:19, 20Take no usury or interest from him; but #Neh. 5:9fear your God, that your brother may live with you. 37You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. 38#Lev. 11:45; 22:32, 33I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
The Law Concerning Slavery
39‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. 40As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. 41And then he shall depart from you—he and his children #Ex. 21:3with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. 42For they are #Lev. 25:55; (Rom. 6:22; 1 Cor. 7:22, 23)My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43#Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1You shall not rule over him #Ex. 1:13, 14; Lev. 25:46, 53; Ezek. 34:4with rigor, but you #Ex. 1:17; Deut. 25:18; Mal. 3:5shall fear your God. 44And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45Moreover you may buy #(Is. 56:3, 6, 7)the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. 46And #Is. 14:2you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.
47‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself. 50Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be #Job 7:1; Is. 16:14according to the time of a hired servant for him. 51If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought. 52And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption. 53He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. 54And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him. 55For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
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Leviticus 25: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 25
25
The Time of Rest for the Land
1The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai. He said, 2“Tell the people of Israel this: ‘I will give you land. When you enter it, let it have a special time of rest. This will be to honor the Lord. 3You may plant seed in your field for six years. 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. You must not 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. It will be food for your hired workers and 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 7 years. This will be 49 years. During that time there will be 7 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. Announce freedom for all the people living in your country. This time will be called Jubilee.# This word comes from the Hebrew word for a horn of a male sheep. Each of you will go back to his own property. And each of you will go back to his own family and family group. 11The fiftieth year will be a special time for you to celebrate. Don’t plant seeds. Don’t harvest the crops that grow by themselves. Don’t gather grapes from the vines that are not trimmed. 12That year is Jubilee. It will be a holy time for you. You may eat the crops that come from the field. 13In the year of Jubilee each person will go back to his own property.
14“‘Don’t cheat your neighbor when you sell your land to him. And don’t let him cheat you when you buy land from him. 15You might want to buy your neighbor’s land. If you do, count the number of years since the last Jubilee. Use that number to decide the right price. If he sells the land to you, count the number of years left for harvesting crops. Use that number to decide the right price. 16If there are many years, the price will be high. If there are only a few years, lower the price. This is because your neighbor is really selling only a few crops to you. At the next Jubilee the land will again belong to his family. 17You must not cheat each other. You respect your God. I am the Lord your God.
18“‘Remember my laws and rules, and obey them. Then you will live safely in the land. 19The land will give good crops to you. You will eat as much as you want. And you will 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?” 21Don’t worry. I will send you a great blessing during the sixth year. That year the land will produce enough crops for 3 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 forever. You are only foreigners and travelers living for a time on my land. 24People might sell their land. But the family will always get its land back. 25A person in your country might become very poor. He might be so poor that he must sell his land. So his close relatives must come and buy it back for him. 26A person might not have a close relative to buy back his land for him. But he might get enough money to buy it back himself. 27He must count the years since the land was sold. He must use that number to decide how much to pay for the land. Then he may buy it back. And the land will be his again. 28But he might not find enough money to buy it back for himself. Then the one who bought it will keep it until the year of Jubilee. But during that celebration, the land will go back to the first owner’s family.
29“‘Someone may sell a home in a walled city. But, for a full year after he sold it, he has the right to buy it back. 30But the owner might not buy back the house before a full year is over. If he doesn’t, the house in the walled city will belong to the one who bought it. It will belong 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. This is true in the cities which belong to them. 33Someone might buy a house from a Levite. But 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 people of Israel gave these cities to the Levites. 34Also the fields and pastures around the Levites’ cities cannot be sold. Those fields belong to the Levites forever.
Rules for Slave Owners
35“‘Someone from your country might become 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. Respect your God. And let the poor man live among you. 37Don’t lend him money for interest. Don’t try to make a profit from the food he buys. 38I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I did it to give the land of Canaan to you and to become your God.
39“‘Someone from your country might become very poor. He might even sell himself as a slave to you. If he does, you must not make him work like a slave. 40He will be like a hired worker. And he will be like a visitor with you until the year of Jubilee. 41Then he may leave you. He may take his children and go back to his family and the land of his ancestors. 42This is because the Israelites are my servants. I brought them out of slavery in Egypt. They must not become slaves again. 43You must not rule this person cruelly. You must respect your God.
44“‘You may buy men and women slaves from other nations around you. 45Also you may buy children as slaves. These children must come from the families of foreigners living in your land. These child slaves will belong to you. 46You may even pass these foreign slaves on to your children after you die. You can make them slaves forever. But you must not rule cruelly over your own brothers, the Israelites.
47“‘A foreigner or visitor among you might become rich. And someone in your country might become poor. The poor man might sell himself as a slave to a foreigner living among you. Or he might sell himself to a member of a foreigner’s family. 48The poor man has the right to be bought back and become free. One of his relatives may buy him back. 49His uncle or his uncle’s son may buy him back. One of his close relatives may buy him back. Or if he gets enough money, he may pay the money himself. Then he will be free again.
50“‘How do you decide the price? You must count the years from the time he sold himself to the foreigner. And count up to the next year of Jubilee. Use that number to decide the price. This is because the person really only hired himself out for a certain number of years. 51There might still be many years before the year of Jubilee. If so, the person must pay back a large part of the price. 52There might only be a few years left until Jubilee. If so, the person must pay a small part of the first price. 53But he will live like a hired man with the foreigner every year. Don’t let the foreigner rule cruelly over him.
54“‘That person will become free, 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 my servants. I brought them out of slavery in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
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