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
Leviticus 25
1¶ And the Lord spoke unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying,
2Speak unto the sons of Israel and say unto them, When ye have 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 fruit thereof,
4but the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath unto the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard.
5That which grows of its own accord in thy land that was harvested, thou shalt not reap; neither fence in the grapes of thy consecrated vine; for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6But the sabbath of the land shall be food for you, for thee and for thy slave and for thy maid and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourns with thee
7and for thy beast and for the animals that are in thy land shall all the fruit thereof be food.
8¶ And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years.
9Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound an alarm on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of the reconciliations shall ye cause the shofar to sound throughout all your land.
10And ye shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every one unto his possession, and ye shall return each one unto his family.
11A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow nor reap that which grows of itself in it nor fence in thy consecrated vine.
12For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the fruit of the land.
13In this year of jubilee ye shall return each one unto his possession.
14And if thou sell anything unto thy neighbour or buy anything of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another.
15According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee.
16According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell unto thee.
17Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the Lord your God.
18Execute, therefore, my statutes and keep my rights 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 fruits,
21then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit; until the ninth year, until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
23¶ The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
24Therefore, in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
25If thy brother becomes poor and has sold away some of his possession, his redeemer shall come, his closest kinsman, and shall redeem that which his brother sold.
26And when the man has no redeemer and is able to stretch forth his hand and find enough for his redemption,
27then he shall count the years from the sale thereof and pay that which remains unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
28But if he is not able to stretch forth his hand and find enough to return unto it, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of the one that has bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee the land shall go out free, and he shall return unto his possession.
29And if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.
30And if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to the one that bought it for his descendants; it shall not go out in the jubilee.
31But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
32Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites and the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
33And if a man makes a purchase from the Levites, then the house that was sold and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons 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 becomes poor and comes unto thee, then thou shalt receive him; as a stranger, or a sojourner, he shall live with thee.
36Take thou no usury of him, or increase; but thou shalt have the fear of thy God, and thy brother shall live with thee.
37Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy food for increase.
38I AM 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¶ And when thy brother becomes poor, being with thee, and if he should sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a slave.
40As a hired servant and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee.
41Then he shall depart free from thy house, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he be restored.
42For they belong to me, I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.
43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.
44Both thy menslaves and thy maidslaves, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Gentiles that are round about you; of them shall ye buy slaves.
45Ye may also buy of the children of the strangers that live among you and of those of their lineage that are born in your land, who are with you, and they shall be your possession.
46And ye shall possess them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit as a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever; but over your brethren, the sons of Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigor.
47And if a sojourner or stranger who is with thee becomes rich and thy brother who is with him becomes poor and sells himself unto the stranger or sojourner who is with thee or to the race of the lineage of the stranger,
48after he is sold he shall have redemption; one of his brethren shall redeem him;
49either his uncle or his uncle’s son shall redeem him; or any that is near of kin unto him of his lineage shall redeem him; or if he is able, he may redeem himself.
50And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto 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 shall it be with him.
51If there are yet many years, according unto them he shall give again 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 jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
53 And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him; and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.
54And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he and his children with him.
55For the sons of Israel are mine; they are my slaves whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I AM your God.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International