Leviticus 25
25
1The Lord told Moses on Mount Sinai, 2“Tell the Israelites: When you enter the land that I'm giving you, the land itself must also observe a Sabbath rest in honor of the Lord. 3Six years you can cultivate your fields, take care of your vineyards, and harvest your crops. 4But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath in honor of the Lord. Don't plant your fields or care for your vineyards. 5Don't harvest what may have grown up in your fields, or collect the grapes from your vineyards that you haven't cared for. The land is to have a year of complete rest. 6You can eat whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year. This applies to yourself, your male and female slaves, paid workers and foreigners who live with you, 7and to your livestock and the wild animals living in your land. Whatever grows can be used for food.
8Count seven ‘sabbaths’ of years, in other words, seven times seven years, so that the seven sabbaths of years come to forty-nine years. 9Then blow the trumpet all through the country on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement. Make sure this signal is heard throughout your whole country. 10You are to dedicate the fiftieth year and announce freedom everywhere in the country for all who live there. This is to be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to reclaim your property and to be part of your family once more.#25:10. This meant that whatever property had been sold during the previous 50 years now reverted back to its original owner, and that anyone who had become a slave was set free and allowed to return to their own family. 11The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. Don't sow the land; don't harvest what may have grown up in your fields, or collect the grapes from your vineyards that you haven't cared for. 12It is a Jubilee and it is to be holy to you. You can eat whatever the land produces. 13In this Jubilee Year, every one of you shall return to your own property.
14If you sell land to your neighbor, or buy land from him, don't exploit one another. 15When you buy from your neighbor work out how many years have passed since the last Jubilee, for he is to sell to you depending on how many years of harvest remain. 16The more years that are left, the more you shall pay; the fewer years that are left, the less you shall pay, because he is actually selling you a specific number of harvests. 17Don't exploit one another, but have respect for your God, because I am the Lord your God.
18Keep my rules and observe my regulations, so you can live in safety in the land. 19Then the land will produce good harvests, so you will have plenty to eat and live in safety there. 20But if you ask, ‘What are we going to do in the seventh year if we do not sow or harvest our crops?’ 21I will bless you in the sixth year, so that the land will produce a crop that will be enough for three years. 22As you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from that harvest, which will last until your harvest in the ninth year.
23Land must not be permanently sold, because it really belongs to me. To me you are only foreigners and travelers passing through. 24So whatever land you buy to own, you must make arrangements so it can be returned to its original owner.#25:24. “Returned to its original owner”: literally, “the redemption of the land.” 25If one of your people becomes poor and sells you some of their land, their close family can come and buy back what they have sold. 26However, if they don't have anyone who can buy it back, but in the meantime their financial situation improves and they have enough to buy back the land, 27they will work however many years it has been since the sale, and pay back the balance to the person who bought it, and go back to their property 28If they can't raise enough to pay the person back for the land, the buyer will remain its owner until the Jubilee Year. But in the Jubilee Year the land will be returned so that the original owners can go back to their property.
29If someone sells a house located in a walled town, they have the right to buy it back for a full year after selling it. It can be bought back any time during that year. 30If it isn't bought back by the end of a full year, then ownership of the house in the walled town is permanently transferred to the one who bought it and their descendants. It won't be returned in the Jubilee. 31But houses in villages that don't have walls around them are to be treated as located in the fields. They can be bought back, and will be returned in the Jubilee.
32However, the Levites always have the right to buy back their houses in the towns that belong to them. 33Whatever the Levites own can be bought back, even houses sold in their towns, and must be returned in the Jubilee. That's because the houses in the towns of the Levites are what they were given to own as their share among the Israelites. 34However, the fields surrounding their towns must not be sold because they belong to the Levites permanently.
35If any of your people become poor and can't survive,#25:35. “Can't survive”: literally, “his hand has failed.” you must help them in the same way you would help a foreigner or a stranger, so that they can go on living in your neighborhood. 36Don't make them pay you any interest or demand more than they borrowed, but respect your God so that they can remain living in your area. 37Don't lend them silver with interest or sell them food at an inflated price. 38Remember, I am the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39If any of your people become poor and have to sell themselves to work for you, don't force them to work as a slave. 40Have them live with you like a paid worker who is staying with you for a while. They are to work for you until the Jubilee Year. 41Then they and their children must be freed, and they can go back to their family and to their family's property. 42Israelites are not to be sold as slaves because they belong to me as my slaves—I led them out of Egypt. 43Don't treat them with brutality. Have respect for your God.
44Buy your male and female slaves from the surrounding nations. 45You can also buy them from foreigners who have come to live among you, or from their descendants born in your land. You can treat them as your property. 46You can pass them on to your children to inherit as property after you die. You can make them slaves for life, but you must not brutally treat any of your own people, the Israelites, as a slave.
47If a foreigner among you becomes successful, and one of your people living nearby becomes poor and sells themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner's family, 48they still have the right of being bought back after the sale. A member of their family can buy them back— 49an uncle or cousin or any close relative from their family can buy them back. If they become successful, they can buy themselves back. 50The person concerned and their buyer will work out the time from the year of the sale up to the Jubilee Year. The price will depend on the number of years, calculated using the daily rate for a paid worker. 51If there are many years left, they must pay a larger percentage of the purchase price. 52If there are only a few years remaining before the Jubilee Year, then they only have to pay a percentage depending on the number of years still left. 53They are to live with their foreign owner just like a paid worker, hired from year to year, but see to it that the owner doesn't treat him brutally. 54If they are not bought back in any of the ways described, they and their children shall be freed in the Jubilee Year. 55For the Israelites belong to me as my slaves. They are my slaves—I led them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
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Leviticus 25: FBV
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Leviticus 25
25
1And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in mount Sinai, saying,
2‘Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye come in unto the land which I am giving to you, then hath the land kept a sabbath to Jehovah.
3‘Six years thou dost sow thy field, and six years thou dost prune thy vineyard, and hast gathered its increase,
4and in the seventh year a sabbath of rest is to the land, a sabbath to Jehovah; thy field thou dost not sow, and thy vineyard thou dost not prune;
5the spontaneous growth of thy harvest thou dost not reap, and the grapes of thy separated thing thou dost not gather, a year of rest it is to the land.
6‘And the sabbath of the land hath been to you for food, to thee, and to thy manservant, and to thy handmaid, and to thy hireling, and to thy settler, who are sojourning with thee;
7and to thy cattle, and to the beast which [is] in thy land, is all thine increase for food.
8‘And thou hast numbered to thee seven sabbaths of years, seven years seven times, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years have been to thee nine and forty years,
9and thou hast caused a trumpet of shouting to pass over in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month; in the day of the atonements ye do cause a trumpet to pass over through all your land;
10and ye have hallowed the year, the fiftieth year; and ye have proclaimed liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; a jubilee it is to you; and ye have turned back each unto his possession; yea, each unto his family ye do turn back.
11‘A jubilee it [is], the fiftieth year, a year it is to you; ye sow not, nor reap its spontaneous growth, nor gather its separated things;
12for a jubilee it [is], holy it is to you; out of the field ye eat its increase;
13in the year of this jubilee ye turn back each unto his possession.
14‘And when thou sellest anything to thy fellow, or buyest from the hand of thy fellow, ye do not oppress one another;
15by the number of years after the jubilee thou dost buy from thy fellow; by the number of the years of increase he doth sell to thee;
16according to the multitude of the years thou dost multiply its price, and according to the fewness of the years thou dost diminish its price; for a number of increases he is selling to thee;
17and ye do not oppress one another, and thou hast been afraid of thy God; for I [am] Jehovah your God.
18‘And ye have done My statutes, and My judgments ye keep, and have done them, and ye have dwelt on the land confidently,
19and the land hath given its fruit, and ye have eaten to satiety, and have dwelt confidently on it.
20‘And when ye say, What do we eat in the seventh year, lo, we do not sow, nor gather our increase?
21then I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it hath made the increase for three years;
22and ye have sown the eighth year, and have eaten of the old increase; until the ninth year, until the coming in of its increase, ye do eat the old.
23‘And the land is not sold — to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for sojourners and settlers [are] ye with Me;
24and in all the land of your possession a redemption ye do give to the land.
25‘When thy brother becometh poor, and hath sold his possession, then hath his redeemer who is near unto him come, and he hath redeemed the sold thing of his brother;
26and when a man hath no redeemer, and his own hand hath attained, and he hath found as sufficient [for] its redemption,
27then he hath reckoned the years of its sale, and hath given back that which is over to the man to whom he sold [it], and he hath returned to his possession.
28‘And if his hand hath not found sufficiency to give back to him, then hath his sold thing been in the hand of him who buyeth it till the year of jubilee; and it hath gone out in the jubilee, and he hath returned to his possession.
29‘And when a man selleth a dwelling-house [in] a walled city, then hath his right of redemption been until the completion of a year from its selling; days — is his right of redemption;
30and if it is not redeemed until the fulness to him of a perfect year, then hath the house which [is] in a walled city been established to extinction to the buyer of it, to his generations; it goeth not out in the jubilee;
31and a house of the villages which have no wall round about, on the field of the country is reckoned; redemption is to it, and in the jubilee it goeth out.
32‘As to cities of the Levites — houses of the cities of their possession — redemption age-during is to the Levites;
33as to him who redeemeth from the Levites, both the sale of a house and the city of his possession have gone out in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel.
34And a field, a suburb of their cities, is not sold; for a possession age-during it [is] to them.
35‘And when thy brother is become poor, and his hand hath failed with thee, then thou hast kept hold on him, sojourner and settler, and he hath lived with thee;
36thou takest no usury from him, or increase; and thou hast been afraid of thy God; and thy brother hath lived with thee;
37thy money thou givest not to him in usury, and for increase thou givest not thy food;
38I [am] Jehovah your God, who hath brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give to you the land of Canaan, to become your God.
39‘And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service;
40as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, —
41then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back.
42‘For they [are] My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold [with] the sale of a servant;
43thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God.
44‘And thy man-servant and thy handmaid whom thou hast [are] of the nations who [are] round about you; of them ye buy man-servant and handmaid,
45and also of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, of them ye buy, and of their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession;
46and ye have taken them for inheritance to your sons after you, to occupy [for] a possession; to the age ye lay service upon them, but upon your brethren, the sons of Israel, one with another, thou dost not rule over him with rigour.
47‘And when the hand of a sojourner or settler with thee attaineth [riches], and thy brother with him hath become poor, and he hath been sold to a sojourner, a settler with thee, or to the root of the family of a sojourner,
48after he hath been sold, there is a right of redemption to him; one of his brethren doth redeem him,
49or his uncle, or a son of his uncle, doth redeem him, or any of the relations of his flesh, of his family, doth redeem him, or — his own hand hath attained — then he hath been redeemed.
50‘And he hath reckoned with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him till the year of jubilee, and the money of his sale hath been by the number of years; as the days of an hireling it is with him.
51‘If yet many years, according to them he giveth back his redemption [money], from the money of his purchase.
52‘And if few are left of the years till the year of jubilee, then he hath reckoned with him, according to his years he doth give back his redemption [money];
53as an hireling, year by year, he is with him, and he doth not rule him with rigour before thine eyes.
54‘And if he is not redeemed in these [years], then he hath gone out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.
55For to Me [are] the sons of Israel servants; My servants they [are], whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I, Jehovah, [am] your God.
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