Leviticus 25
25
Sabbath Years and Jubilee
1The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to the Lord. 3You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. 4But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest#Lv 16:31 for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You are not to reap what grows by itself from your crop, or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It is to be a year of complete rest for the land. 6Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you — for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired worker or alien who resides with you. 7All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.
8“You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to forty-nine. 9Then you are to sound a ram’s horn loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement.#Lv 23:27 10You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee,#Lv 27:17–24; Nm 36:4; Dt 15:1 when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan. 11The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines. 12It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.
13“In this Year of Jubilee, each of you will return to his property. 14If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, do not cheat#Dt 23:16 one another. 15You are to make the purchase from your neighbor based on the number of years since the last Jubilee. He is to sell to you based on the number of remaining harvest years. 16You are to increase its price in proportion to a greater amount of years, and decrease its price in proportion to a lesser amount of years, because what he is selling to you is a number of harvests. 17You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
18“You are to keep my statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land.#Lv 18:4–5,26; 19:37; 20:8,22; 26:3–5 19Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. 20If you wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’ 21I will appoint my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.
23“The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine, and you are only aliens and temporary residents on my land.#25:23 Lit residents with me#1Ch 29:15; Heb 11:13 24You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy. 25If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers#25:26 Lit but his hand reaches and obtains enough to redeem his land, 27he may calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man he sold it to, and return to his property. 28But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of its purchaser until the Year of Jubilee. It is to be released at the Jubilee, so that he may return to his property.
29“If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year. 30If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee. 31But houses in settlements that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.
32“Concerning the Levitical cities,#Nm 35:1–8; Dt 18:1–2; 19:2–9; Jos 21; 1Ch 6:54–81 the Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess. 33Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem#25:33 Hb obscure — a house sold in a city they possess — is to be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possession among the Israelites. 34The open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.
35“If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among#25:35 Lit and his hand falters with you, you are to support him as an alien or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. 36Do not profit or take interest from him,#Ex 22:25; Dt 23:19–20; Ezk 22:12 but fear your God and let your brother live among you. 37You are not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit. 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 your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you,#2Kg 4:1; Neh 5:5; Is 50:1; Mt 18:25 you must not force him to do slave labor. 40Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he may work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41Then he and his children are to be released from you, and he may return to his clan and his ancestral property.#Ex 21:3–6 42They are not to be sold as slaves,#25:42 Lit sold with a sale of a slave because they are my servants#25:42 Or slaves that I brought out of the land of Egypt. 43You are not to rule over them harshly#Ex 1:13–14 but fear your God. 44Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves. 45You may also purchase them from the aliens residing with you, or from their families living among you — those born in your land. These may become your property. 46You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.
47“If an alien or temporary resident living among you prospers, but your brother living near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the alien living among you, or to a member of the resident alien’s clan, 48he has the right of redemption after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. 49His uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him. If he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50The one who purchased him is to calculate the time from the year he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years. It will be set for him like the daily wages of a hired worker. 51If many years are still left, he must pay his redemption price in proportion to them based on his purchase price. 52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he will calculate and pay the price of his redemption in proportion to his remaining years. 53He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A resident alien is not to rule over him harshly in your sight. 54If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released at the Year of Jubilee. 55For the Israelites are my servants.#Ex 4:10 They are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
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Leviticus 25: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
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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