Leviticus 25
25
1And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. 3Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; 4but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5That which groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourn with thee; 7and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.
8And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years. 9Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. 10And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 11A jubile 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 the undressed vines. 12For it is a jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 13In this year of jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. 14And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not wrong one another: 15according to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee. 16According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops doth he sell unto thee. 17And ye shall not wrong one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. 18Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgements and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 19And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: 21then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. 22And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until her fruits come in, ye shall eat the old store.
23And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 25If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold. 26And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxen rich and find sufficient to redeem it; 27then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession. 28But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. 29And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption. 30And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. 31But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. 32Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. 35And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his hand fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee. 36Take thou no usury of him or increase; but fear thy God: that thy brother may live with thee. 37Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor give him thy victuals for increase. 38I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
39And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant: 40as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubile: 41then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 42For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. 43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. 44And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. 45Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they shall be your possession. 46And ye shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall ye take your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with rigour. 47And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxen rich, and thy brother be waxen poor beside him, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner with thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: 48after that he is sold he may be redeemed; one of his brethren may redeem him: 49or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be waxen rich, he may redeem himself. 50And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he sold himself to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years; according to the time of an hired servant shall he be with him. 51If there be yet many years, according unto them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his years shall he give back the price of his redemption. 53As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. 54And if he be not redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, he, and his children with him. 55For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
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Leviticus 25: RV1895
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historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
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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