Leviticus 25
25
1The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2#Ex 23.10,11. “Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. 3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; 4but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather; it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; 7for your cattle also and for the beasts that are in your land all its yield shall be for food.
8“And you shall count seven weeks#25.8 Or sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years. 9Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. 10And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. 11A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field.
13“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you. 16If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
18“Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and perform them; so you will dwell in the land securely. 19The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely. 20And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that it will bring forth fruit for three years. 22When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old. 23The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land.
25“If your brother becomes poor, and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26If a man has no one to redeem it, and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. 28But if he has not sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
29“If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a whole year after its sale; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. 32Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. 33And if one of the Levites does not exercise#25.33 Compare Vg: Heb exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city of their possession shall be released in the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34But the fields of common land belonging to their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession.
35 #
Deut 15.7-11. “And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. 36#Ex 22.25; Deut 23.19,20. Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you. 37You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 #
Ex 21.2-6; Deut 15.12-18. “And if your brother becomes poor beside you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40he shall be with you as a hired servant and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee; 41then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own family, and return to the possession of his fathers. 42For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God. 44As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you. 45You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. 46You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
47“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to a member of the stranger's family, 48then after he is sold he may be redeemed; one of his brothers may redeem him, 49or his uncle, or his cousin may redeem him, or a near kinsman belonging to his family may redeem him; or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. 50He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his release shall be according to the number of years; the time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired servant. 51If there are still many years, according to them he shall refund out of the price paid for him the price for his redemption. 52If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall make a reckoning with him; according to the years of service due from him he shall refund the money for his redemption. 53As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him; he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. 54And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him. 55For to me the people 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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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
Leviticus 25
25
The Sabbath Year
1Then the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2#Ex 23:10; Lev 26:34–35Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. 3For six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruit, 4but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5#2Ki 19:29; Isa 37:30That which grows by itself from your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vines, for it is a year of complete rest for the land. 6The sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, and for your male and female servants, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger who sojourns with you, 7and for your livestock, and for the wild animals in your land, shall all its increase be food.
The Year of Jubilee
Dt 15:1–11; Ex 21:2–11; Dt 15:12–18
8#Lev 23:15You shall count seven sabbath weeks of years, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. 9#Lev 23:24; 23:27Then you shall sound the horn blasts on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall make the sound of the horn throughout all your land. 10#Jer 34:8; Ex 20:2You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee to you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and every person shall return to his family. 11That fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. You shall neither sow nor reap that which grows by itself, nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vines. 12#Lev 25:6–7For it is the Jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You shall eat the produce of the field.
13#Lev 25:10In the Year of Jubilee you shall return to your property.
14#Lev 19:13; 25:17If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from your neighbor, you shall not oppress one another. 15According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall pay your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16According to the increase of years you shall increase the price, and according to the decrease of years you shall diminish the price of it. For he shall sell to you according to the number of years of crops. 17#Lev 19:14; 19:32You shall not therefore oppress one another, but you shall fear your God. For I am the Lord your God.
18#Dt 12:10; Jer 23:6Therefore you shall do My statutes, and keep My decrees, and do them, and you shall dwell securely in the land. 19#Lev 26:5; Ps 85:12The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill and live securely in it. 20#Lev 25:4; Lk 12:29If you shall say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we shall not sow nor gather in our crop?” 21#Dt 28:8then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth produce for three years. 22#Lev 26:10; 2Ki 19:29You shall sow in the eighth year, and eat yet of old crops until the ninth year until its crops come in for you.
Redemption of Property
23#1Ch 29:15; Ps 39:12The land shall not be permanently sold, for the land is Mine. For you are foreigners and sojourners with Me. 24In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25#Ru 2:20; 3:9If your brother becomes poor and has sold some of his possession, then his nearest redeemer will come to redeem it, and buy back that which his brother sold. 26If the man has none to redeem it, but he himself is able to redeem it, 27then let him count the years since the sale and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, so that he may return to his property. 28But if he is not able to restore it to himself, then that which he sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee, and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.
29If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a year after it is sold, within a full year he may have the right to buy it back. 30If it is not redeemed within the time of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be given permanently to him who bought it throughout his generations. It shall not be returned in the Jubilee. 31But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be returned in the Jubilee.
32For the cities of the Levites, they may redeem at any time the houses in the cities that they possess. 33If a Levite purchases back the house that was sold in the city of his possession, then it shall be returned in the Jubilee. For the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34#Lev 25:23; Ac 4:36–37But the fields of the land of their cities may not be sold, for they are their perpetual possession.
Helping the Poor
35#Dt 15:7–8; Ps 37:26If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, then you shall support him as if he were a foreigner or a sojourner, so that he may live with you. 36#Ex 22:25; Dt 23:19–20Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, so that your brother may live with you. 37You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor lend him your food for profit. 38#Lev 11:45; 22:32–33I 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.
The Law About Slavery
39#Ex 21:2; 1Ki 9:22; Lev 25:46If your brother who dwells near you becomes poor and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant. 40But as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with you. He shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. 41#Lev 25:28; Ex 21:3And then he shall depart from you, both he and his children with him, and he shall return to his own family and to the possession of his fathers. 42#Lev 25:55; Ro 6:22For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. 43#Col 4:1; Ex 1:13–14You shall not rule over him with harshness, but you shall fear your God.
44Both your male and female slaves, whom you may have, they shall be bought from the nations that are around you. 45Moreover of the foreigners who sojourn among you and of their families who are with you, who were born in your land, you may also buy from them, and they may be your possession. 46You may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, for their possession. They shall be your slaves forever. But over your brothers, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.
47If a sojourner or foreigner becomes rich by you, and your brother who dwells beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner or sojourner with you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48#Ne 5:5then after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49#Lev 25:26or either his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or any who is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him. Or if he is able, he may redeem himself. 50#Isa 16:14; 21:16He shall calculate with him who bought him from the year that he was sold to the Year of Jubilee, and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant. 51If there are still many years left until the Jubilee, he shall pay the price proportionately for his redemption as some of the price that he was bought for. 52If there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall calculate and pay the price proportionately for his redemption according to his years of service. 53As a yearly hired servant he shall be treated, and the other shall not rule harshly over him in your sight.
54#Ex 21:2–3If he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the Year of Jubilee, both he and his children with him. 55#Lev 25:42For to Me the children of Israel are servants. They are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
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