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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Vayikra 25: TOJB2011
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.
Vayikra (Lev) 25
25
1Adonai spoke to Moshe on Mount Sinai; he said, 2“Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘When you enter the land I am giving you, the land itself is to observe a Shabbat rest for Adonai. 3Six years you will sow your field; six years you will prune your grapevines and gather their produce. 4But in the seventh year is to be a Shabbat of complete rest for the land, a Shabbat for Adonai; you will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines. 5You are not to harvest what grows by itself from the seeds left by your previous harvest, and you are not to gather the grapes of your untended vine; it is to be a year of complete rest for the land. 6But what the land produces during the year of Shabbat will be food for all of you — you, your servant, your maid, your employee, anyone living near you, 7your livestock and the wild animals on your land; everything the land produces may be used for food.
8“‘You are to count seven Shabbats of years, seven times seven years, that is, forty-nine years. 9Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom-Kippur, you are to sound a blast on the shofar; you are to sound the shofar all through your land; 10and you are to consecrate the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a yovel for you; you will return everyone to the land he owns, and everyone is to return to his family. 11That fiftieth year will be a yovel for you; in that year you are not to sow, harvest what grows by itself or gather the grapes of untended vines; 12because it is a yovel. It will be holy for you; whatever the fields produce will be food for all of you. 13In this year of yovel, every one of you is to return to the land he owns.
(LY: ii) 14“‘If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, neither of you is to exploit the other. 15Rather, you are to take into account the number of years after the yovel when you buy land from your neighbor, and he is to sell to you according to the number of years crops will be raised. 16If the number of years remaining is large, you will raise the price; if few years remain, you will lower it; because what he is really selling you is the number of crops to be produced. 17Thus you are not to take advantage of each other, but you are to fear your God; for I am Adonai your God.
18“‘Rather, you are to keep my regulations and rulings and act accordingly. If you do, you will live securely in the land. (RY: ii, LY: iii) 19The land will yield its produce, you will eat until you have enough, and you will live there securely.
20“‘If you ask, “If we aren’t allowed to sow seed or harvest what our land produces, what are we going to eat the seventh year?” 21then I will order my blessing on you during the sixth year, so that the land brings forth enough produce for all three years. 22The eighth year you will sow seed but eat the the old, stored produce until the ninth year; that is, until the produce of the eighth year comes in, you will eat the old, stored food.
23“‘The land is not to be sold in perpetuity, because the land belongs to me — you are only foreigners and temporary residents with me. 24Therefore, when you sell your property, you must include the right of redemption. (LY: iv) 25That is, if one of you becomes poor and sells some of his property, his next-of-kin can come and buy back what his relative sold. 26If the seller has no one to redeem it but becomes rich enough to redeem it himself, 27he will calculate the number of years the land was sold for, refund the excess to its buyer, and return to his property. 28If he hasn’t sufficient means to get it back himself, then what he sold will remain in the hands of the buyer until the year of yovel; in the yovel the buyer will vacate it and the seller return to his property.
(RY: iii, LY: v) 29“‘If someone sells a dwelling in a walled city, he has one year after the date of sale in which to redeem it. For a full year he will have the right of redemption; 30but if he has not redeemed the dwelling in the walled city within the year, then title in perpetuity passes to the buyer through all his generations; it will not revert in the yovel. 31However, houses in villages not surrounded by walls are to be dealt with like the fields in the countryside — they may be redeemed [before the yovel], and they revert in the yovel.
32“‘Concerning the cities of the L’vi’im and the houses in the cities they possess, the L’vi’im are to have a permanent right of redemption. 33If someone purchases a house from one of the L’vi’im, then the house he sold in the city where he owns property will still revert to him in the yovel; because the houses in the cities of the L’vi’im are their tribe’s possession among the people of Isra’el. 34The fields in the open land around their cities may not be sold, because that is their permanent possession.
35“‘If a member of your people has become poor, so that he can’t support himself among you, you are to assist him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident, so that he can continue living with you. 36Do not charge him interest or otherwise profit from him, but fear your God, so that your brother can continue living with you. 37Do not take interest when you loan him money or take a profit when you sell him food. 38I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to give you the land of Kena‘an and be your God.
(RY: iv, LY: vi) 39“‘If a member of your people has become poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him do the work of a slave. 40Rather, you are to treat him like an employee or a tenant; he will work for you until the year of yovel. 41Then he will leave you, he and his children with him, and return to his own family and regain possession of his ancestral land. 42For they are my slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; therefore they are not to be sold as slaves. 43Do not treat him harshly, but fear your God.
44“‘Concerning the men and women you may have as slaves: you are to buy men- and women-slaves from the nations surrounding you. 45You may also buy the children of foreigners living with you and members of their families born in your land; you may own these. 46You may also bequeath them to your children to own; from these groups you may take your slaves forever. But as far as your brothers the people of Isra’el are concerned, you are not to treat each other harshly.
(LY: vii) 47“‘If a foreigner living with you has grown rich, and a member of your people has become poor and sells himself to this foreigner living with you or to a member of the foreigner’s family, 48he may be redeemed after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or any near relative of his may redeem him; or, if he becomes rich, he may redeem himself. 50He will calculate with the person who bought him the time from the year he sold himself to him to the year of yovel; and the amount to be paid will be according to the number of years and his time at an employee’s wage. 51If many years remain, according to them will he refund the amount for his redemption from the amount he was bought for. 52If there remain only a few years until the year of yovel, then he will calculate with him; according to his years will he refund the amount for his redemption. 53He will be like a worker hired year by year. You will see to it that he is not treated harshly.
54“‘If he has not been redeemed by any of these procedures, nevertheless he will go free in the year of yovel — he and his children with him. (LY: Maftir) 55For to me the people of Isra’el are slaves; they are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God.
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