Leviticus 25
25
The Sabbath Year
1While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, 2“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord every seventh year. 3For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, 4but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. 5And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. 6But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. 7Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces.
The Year of Jubilee
8“In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up to forty-nine years in all. 9Then on the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year,#25:9 Hebrew on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement; see 23:27a and the note there. blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land. 10Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan. 11This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own, and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. 12It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own. 13In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors.
14“When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other. 15When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. 16The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests. 17Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God.
18“If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. 19Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it. 20But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ 21Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years. 22When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year.
Redemption of Property
23“The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.
24“With every purchase of land you must grant the seller the right to buy it back. 25If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him. 26If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, 27he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it. The price of the land will be discounted according to the number of years until the next Year of Jubilee. In this way the original owner can then return to the land. 28But if the original owner cannot afford to buy back the land, it will remain with the new owner until the next Year of Jubilee. In the jubilee year, the land must be returned to the original owners so they can return to their family land.
29“Anyone who sells a house inside a walled town has the right to buy it back for a full year after its sale. During that year, the seller retains the right to buy it back. 30But if it is not bought back within a year, the sale of the house within the walled town cannot be reversed. It will become the permanent property of the buyer. It will not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. 31But a house in a village—a settlement without fortified walls—will be treated like property in the countryside. Such a house may be bought back at any time, and it must be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.
32“The Levites always have the right to buy back a house they have sold within the towns allotted to them. 33And any property that is sold by the Levites—all houses within the Levitical towns—must be returned in the Year of Jubilee. After all, the houses in the towns reserved for the Levites are the only property they own in all Israel. 34The open pastureland around the Levitical towns may never be sold. It is their permanent possession.
Redemption of the Poor and Enslaved
35“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident and allow him to live with you. 36Do not charge interest or make a profit at his expense. Instead, show your fear of God by letting him live with you as your relative. 37Remember, do not charge interest on money you lend him or make a profit on food you sell him. 38I 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.
39“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave. 40Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. 41At that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally allotted to their ancestors. 42The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves. 43Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly.
44“However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. 45You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, 46passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way.
47“Suppose a foreigner or temporary resident becomes rich while living among you. If any of your fellow Israelites fall into poverty and are forced to sell themselves to such a foreigner or to a member of his family, 48they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother, 49an uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy them back. They may also redeem themselves if they have prospered. 50They will negotiate the price of their freedom with the person who bought them. The price will be based on the number of years from the time they were sold until the next Year of Jubilee—whatever it would cost to hire a worker for that period of time. 51If many years still remain until the jubilee, they will repay the proper proportion of what they received when they sold themselves. 52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they will repay a small amount for their redemption. 53The foreigner must treat them as workers hired on a yearly basis. You must not allow a foreigner to treat any of your fellow Israelites harshly. 54If any Israelites have not been bought back by the time the Year of Jubilee arrives, they and their children must be set free at that time. 55For the people of Israel belong 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: NLT
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Vayikra 25
25
[BEHAR]
1And Hashem spoke unto Moshe in Mt. Sinai, saying,
2Speak unto the Bnei Yisroel, and say unto them, When ye come into HaAretz which I give you, then shall HaAretz observe a Shabbos rest unto Hashem.
3Six years thou shalt sow thy sadeh, and six years thou shalt prune thy kerem, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4But in the Shanah HaShevi'it shall be a Shabbos Shabbaton unto HaAretz, a Shabbos unto Hashem; thou shalt neither sow thy sadeh, nor prune thy kerem (vineyard).
5That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy untended vine; for it is Shnat Shabbaton unto HaAretz.
6And the Shabbos of HaAretz shall be food for you; for thee, and for thy eved, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy toshav (guest) that sojourneth with thee.
7And for thy cattle, and for the wild animals that are in thy land, shall all the tevuah (increase) thereof be to eat.
8And thou shalt count seven Shabbatot of shanim unto thee, seven times seven shanim; and the period of the sheva Shabbatot of shanim shall be unto thee forty and nine shanim.
9Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound a broken blast on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Yom HaKippurim shall ye make the shofar sound throughout all your land.
10And ye shall treat as kodesh the fiftieth year, and proclaim deror (freedom) throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a Yovel (Jubilee) unto you; and ye shall return every man unto the ancestral heritage of his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his mishpochah.
11A Yovel shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy untended vine,
12For it is the Yovel; it shall be kodesh unto you; ye shall eat the tevuah (increase) thereof out of the sadeh.
13In this Shnat Yovel ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighborʼs hand, ye shall not take advantage of one another.
15According to the number of shanim after the Yovel thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of shanim of the tevuot (harvests, increases) he shall sell unto thee.
16According to the multitude of shanim thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of shanim thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the shanim of the tevuot doth he sell unto thee.
17Ye shall not therefore take advantage of one another; but thou shalt fear Eloheicha: for I am Hashem Eloheichem.
18Wherefore ye shall do My chukkot, and be shomer over My mishpatim, and do them; and ye shall dwell in HaAretz in safety.
19And HaAretz shall yield her pri, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20And if ye shall say, What shall we eat in the shanah hashevi'it? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our tevuah;
21Then I will command Birkhati (My Blessing) upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth the tevuah for shalosh hashanim.
22And ye shall sow the shanah hasheminit, and eat yet of tevuah yashan (old increase) until the ninth year; until her harvest come in, ye shall eat of the yashan (old).
23HaAretz shall not be sold permanently: for HaAretz is Mine, for ye are gerim and toshavim with Me.
24And in all the eretz of your possession ye shall grant a Geulah for HaAretz.
25If thy brother become poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and his Go'el HaKarov (Near Kinsman Redeemer) come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
26And if the man does not have for him a Go'el, and himself be able to effect the Geulah,
27Then let him count the shanim from the sale thereof, and refund the balance unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
28But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the Shnat HaYovel; and in the Yovel it shall be returned, and he shall return unto his possession.
29And if a man sell a bais moshav in a walled city, then he retains the right of Geulah a full year after its sale; within a full year may he redeem it.
30And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the bais that is in the walled city shall be established forever to him that bought it throughout his dorot; it shall not return in the Yovel.
31But the batim (houses) of the villages which have no chomah (wall) round about them shall be considered as the fields of the country; Geulah shall be for it, and in the Yovel it must return.
32Notwithstanding, the towns of the Levi'im, and the batim (houses) of the towns of their possession, there is a Geulat Olam for the Levi'im.
33And what one will buy from the Levi'im, the bais that was sold, and the town of his possession, shall be released in the year of Yovel; for the batim of the towns of the Levi'im are their possession among the Bnei Yisroel.
34But the sadeh of the open land of their towns may not be sold; for it is their achuzzat olam (perpetual heritage).
35And if thy brother become poor, and his hand fails with thee; then thou shalt strengthen him; yea, though he be a ger, or a toshav; that he may live among thee.
36Take thou no neshekh of him, or increase; but fear Eloheicha; that thy brother may live among thee.
37Thou shalt not lend him thy kesef at neshekh, nor give him thy food for increase.
38I am Hashem Eloheichem, which brought you forth out of Eretz Mitzrayim, to give you Eretz Kena'an, and to be Elohim unto you.
39And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee become poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to do avodat eved;
40But as a sakhir, and as a toshav, he shall be among thee, and shall serve thee unto the Shnat HaYovel.
41And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his banim with him, and shall return unto his own mishpochah, and unto the Achuzzat of his Avot shall he return.
42For they are My Eved, which I brought forth out of Eretz Mitzrayim; they shall not be sold in the manner of an eved.
43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear Eloheicha.
44Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Goyim that are round about you; of them shall ye buy eved and amah.
45Moreover of the bnei hatoshavim that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their mishpachot that are among you, which they fathered in your land; and they shall be your possession.
46And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your banim after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your brethren, the Bnei Yisroel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor.
47And if a ger or toshav grow rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him grow poor, and sell himself unto the foreigner among thee, or to the eker (member) mishpachat of the ger;
48After that he is sold, his Geulah remains; one of his brethren may redeem him,
49Either his dod, or ben dod of him, may redeem him, or any that is near of kin unto him of his mishpachat may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
50And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the Shnat HaYovel; and the price of his release shall be based on the number of shanim, according to the value of a sakhirʼs pay shall it be with him.
51If there be yet many shanim remaining, according unto them he shall give for his Geulah the kesef that he was bought for.
52And if there remain but few shanim unto the Shnat HaYovel, then he shall count that, and according unto his shanim shall he pay the price of his Geulah.
53And as a sakhir hired shanah b'shanah shall he be with him; and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.
54And if he be not redeemed in these shanim, then he shall be released in the Shnat HaYovel, both he, and his banim with him.
55For unto Me the Bnei Yisroel are avadim; they are My avadim whom I brought forth out of Eretz Mitzrayim: I am Hashem Eloheichem.
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