Leviticus 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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Leviticus 25: ICB

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Wayyiqra (Leviticus) 25

1And יהוה spoke to Mosheh on Mount Sinai, saying,

2“Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall observe a Sabbath to יהוה.

3‘Six years you sow your field, and six years you prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruit,

4but in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to יהוה. Do not sow your field and do not prune your vineyard.

5‘Do not reap what grows of its own of your harvest, and do not gather the grapes of your unpruned vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.

6‘And the Sabbath of the land shall be to you for food, for you and your servant, and for your female servant and your hired servant, and for the stranger who sojourns with you,

7and for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land. All its crops are for food.

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.

9‘You shall then sound a shophar-sound on the tenth day of the seventh new moon, on Yom haKippurim#Day of the Coverings or Day of Atonement. cause a shophar#Animal horn - traditionally a ram’s horn. to sound through all your land.

10‘And you shall set the fiftieth year apart, and proclaim release throughout all the land to all its inhabitants, it is a Yoḇel#See Explanatory Notes "Yoḇel" for you. And each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you return to his clan.

11‘The fiftieth year is a Yoḇel to you. Do not sow, nor reap what grows of its own, nor gather from its unpruned vine.

12‘It is a Yoḇel, it is set-apart to you. Eat from the field its crops.

13‘In the Year of this Yoḇel let each one of you return to his possession.

14‘And when you sell whatever to your neighbour or buy from the hand of your neighbour, do not exploit one another.

15‘According to the number of years after the Yoḇel you buy from your neighbour, and according to the number of years of crops he sells to you.

16‘According to the greater number of years you increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you diminish its price, because he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops.

17‘And do not oppress one another, but you shall fear your Elohim. For I am יהוה your Elohim.

18‘And you shall do My laws and guard My right-rulings, and shall do them. And you shall dwell in the land in safety,

19‘and the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat to satisfaction, and shall dwell there in safety.

20‘And since you might say, “What do we eat in the seventh year, since we do not sow nor gather in our crops?”

21‘Therefore I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth the crop for three years.

22‘And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat of the old crop until the ninth year. Eat of the old until its crop comes in.

23‘And the land is not to be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine, for you are sojourners and settlers with Me.

24‘And provide for a redemption for the land, in all the land of your possession.

25‘When your brother becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and his redeemer, a close relative comes to redeem it, then he shall redeem what his brother sold.

26‘And when the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it,

27then let him count the years since its sale, and return the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he shall return to his possession.

28‘And if his hand has not found enough to give back to him, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Yoḇel. And it shall be released in the Yoḇel, and he shall return to his possession.

29‘And when a man sells a house in a walled city, then his right of redemption shall be at the end of the year after it is sold. His right of redemption lasts a year.

30‘But if it is not redeemed within a complete year, then the house in the walled city shall be established beyond reclaim to the buyer of it, throughout his generations. It is not released in the Yoḇel.

31‘The houses of villages, however, which have no wall around them are reckoned as the field of the country. A right of redemption belongs to it, and they are released in the Yoḇel.

32‘As for the cities of the Lĕwites, and the houses in the cities of their possession, the Lĕwites have a right of redemption forever.

33‘And that which is redeemed from the Lĕwites, both the sale of a house and the city of his possession shall be released in the Year of Yoḇel, because the houses in the cities of the Lĕwites are their possession in the midst of the children of Yisra’ĕl.

34‘But the field of the open land of their cities is not sold, for it is their everlasting possession.

35‘And when your brother becomes poor, and his hand has failed with you, then you shall strengthen him, and he shall live with you, like a stranger or a sojourner.

36‘Take no interest from him, or profit, but you shall fear your Elohim, and your brother shall live with you.

37‘Do not lend him your silver on interest, and do not lend him your food for profit.

38‘I am יהוה your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, to give you the land of Kena‛an, to be your Elohim.

39‘And when your brother who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, do not make him serve as a slave.

40‘But as a hired servant, as a settler he is with you, and serves you until the Year of Yoḇel.

41‘And then he shall leave you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own clan, even return to the possession of his fathers.

42‘For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim, they are not sold as slaves.

43‘Do not rule over him with harshness, but you shall fear your Elohim.

44‘And your male and female slaves whom you have from the nations that are around you, from them you buy male and female slaves,

45and also from the sons of the strangers sojourning among you, from them you buy, and from their clans who are with you, which they shall bring forth in your land, and they shall be your property.

46‘And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession, they are your slaves for all time. But over your brothers, the children of Yisra’ĕl, you do not rule with harshness, one over another.

47‘Now when a sojourner or a settler with you becomes rich, and your brother with him becomes poor, and sells himself to the settler or sojourner with you, or to a member of the sojourner’s clan,

48after he has been sold, there is a right of redemption to him – one of his brothers does redeem him,

49or his uncle or his uncle’s son does redeem him, or anyone who is a close relative to him in his clan does redeem him, or if he is able, then he shall redeem himself.

50‘And 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 Yoḇel; as the days of a hired servant it is with him.

51‘If there are yet many years, according to them he repays the price of his redemption, from the silver of his purchase.

52‘And if few years are left until the Year of Yoḇel, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he repays him the price of his redemption.

53‘He is with him as a yearly hired servant, and he does not rule with harshness over him before your eyes.

54‘And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Yoḇel, he and his children with him.

55‘Because the children of Yisra’ĕl are servants to Me, they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim. I am יהוה your Elohim.

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