Leviticus 25
25
The Seventh Year
(Deuteronomy 15.1-11)
1 #
Ex 23.10,11. When Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord told him 2to say to the community of Israel:
After you enter the land that I am giving you, it must be allowed to rest one year out of every seven. 3You may raise grain and grapes for six years, 4but the seventh year you must let your fields and vineyards rest in honor of me, your Lord. 5This is to be a time of complete rest for your fields and vineyards, so don't harvest anything they produce. 6-7However, you and your slaves and your hired workers, as well as any domestic or wild animals, may eat whatever grows on its own.
The Year of Celebration
The Lord said to his people:
8Once every 49 years 9on the tenth day of the seventh month,#25.9 seventh month: See the note at 16.29. which is also the Great Day of Forgiveness,#25.9 Great Day of Forgiveness: See the note at 16.34. trumpets are to be blown everywhere in the land. 10This fiftieth year#25.10 fiftieth year: The year following seven periods of seven years. is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return home to their families. 11This is a year of complete celebration, so don't plant any seed or harvest what your fields or vineyards produce. 12In this time of sacred celebration you may eat only what grows on its own.
13During this year, all property must go back to its original owner. 14-15So when you buy or sell farmland, the price is to be determined by the number of crops it can produce before the next Year of Celebration. Don't try to cheat. 16If it is a long time before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher, because what is really being sold are the crops that the land can produce. 17I am the Lord your God, so obey me and don't cheat anyone.
18-19If you obey my laws and teachings, you will live safely in the land and enjoy its abundant crops. 20Don't ever worry about what you will eat during the seventh year when you are forbidden to plant or harvest. 21I will see to it that you harvest enough in the sixth year to last for three years. 22In the eighth year you will live on what you harvested in the sixth year, but in the ninth year you will eat what you plant and harvest in the eighth year.
23No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me—it isn't your land, and you only live there for a little while.
24When property is being sold, the original owner must be given the first chance to buy it.
25If any of you Israelites become so poor that you are forced to sell your property, your closest relative must buy it back, 26if that relative has the money. Later, if you can afford to buy it, 27you must pay enough to make up for what the present owner will lose on it before the next Year of Celebration, when the property would become yours again. 28But if you don't have the money to pay the present owner a fair price, you will have to wait until the Year of Celebration, when the property will once again become yours.
29If you sell a house in a walled city, you have only one year in which to buy it back. 30If you don't buy it back before that year is up, it becomes the permanent property of the one who bought it, and it will not be returned to you in the Year of Celebration. 31But a house out in a village may be bought back at any time just like a field. And it must be returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration. 32If any Levites own houses inside a walled city, they will always have the right to buy them back. 33And any houses that they do not buy back will be returned to them in the Year of Celebration, because these homes are their permanent property among the people of Israel. 34No pastureland owned by the Levi tribe can ever be sold; it is their permanent possession.
Help for the Poor
The Lord said:
35 #
Dt 15.7,8. If any of your people become poor and unable to support themselves, you must help them, just as you are supposed to help foreigners who live among you. 36-37#Ex 22.25; Dt 23.19,20. Don't take advantage of them by charging any kind of interest or selling them food for profit. Instead, honor me by letting them stay where they now live. 38Remember—I am the Lord your God! I rescued you from Egypt and gave you the land of Canaan, so that I would be your God.
39 #
Ex 21.2-6; Dt 15.12-18. Suppose some of your people become so poor that they have to sell themselves and become your slaves. 40Then you must treat them as servants, rather than as slaves. And in the Year of Celebration they are to be set free, 41so they and their children may return home to their families and property. 42I brought them out of Egypt to be my servants, not to be sold as slaves. 43So obey me, and don't be cruel to the poor.
44If you want slaves, buy them from other nations 45or from the foreigners who live in your own country, and make them your property. 46You can own them, and even leave them to your children when you die, but do not make slaves of your own people or be cruel to them.
47Even if some of you Israelites become so much in debt that you must sell yourselves to foreigners in your country, 48you still have the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother 49or uncle or cousin, or some other family member. In fact, if you ever get enough money, you may buy your own freedom 50by paying your owner for the number of years you would still be a slave before the next Year of Celebration. 51-52The longer the time until then, the more you will have to pay. 53And even while you are the slaves of foreigners in your own country, your people must make sure that you are not mistreated. 54If you cannot gain your freedom in any of these ways, both you and your children will still be set free in the Year of Celebration. 55People of Israel, I am the Lord your God, and I brought you out of Egypt to be my own servants.
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Leviticus 25: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
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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