Leviticus 25
25
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying:
2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you will have entered into the land which I will give to you, rest on the Sabbath of the Lord.
3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall care for your vineyard, and you shall gather its fruits.
4 But in the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath of the land, a resting of the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not care for your vineyard.
5 What the soil shall spontaneously produce, you shall not harvest. And you shall not gather the grapes of the first-fruits as a crop. For it is a year of rest for the land.
6 But these shall be yours for food, for you and for your men and women servants, and for your hired hands, and for the newcomers who sojourn with you:
7 all that grows on its own shall provide food for your beasts and cattle.
8 You shall also number for yourselves seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven, which together makes forty-nine years.
9 And you shall sound the trumpet in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, at the time of the atonement, throughout all your land.
10 And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a remission for all the inhabitants of your land: for the same is the Jubilee. A man shall return to his possession, and each one shall go back to his original family,
11 for it is the Jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows in the field of its own accord, and you shall not gather the first-fruits of the crop,
12 due to the sanctification of the Jubilee. But you shall eat them as they present themselves.
13 In the year of the Jubilee, all shall return to their possessions.
14 When you will sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy anything from him, do not cause your brother grief, but buy from him according to the number of years from the Jubilee,
15 and he shall sell to you according to the computation of the produce.
16 The more years that will remain after the Jubilee, the more the price shall increase, and the less the time is numbered, so much less shall the purchase price be. For he will sell to you the time for the produce.
17 Do be willing to afflict your countrymen, but let each one fear his God. For I am the Lord your God.
18 Accomplish my precepts, and observe my judgments, and complete them, so that you may be able to live in the land without any fear,
19 and so that the soil may produce its fruits for you, from which you may eat, even to fullness, dreading violence by no one.
20 But if you will say: What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and do not gather our produce?
21 I will give my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall yield the produce of three years.
22 And in the eighth year you shall sow, but you shall eat from the old produce, until the ninth year, until what is new matures, you shall eat what is old.
23 Also, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is mine, and you are newcomers and settlers to me.
24 Therefore, every region of your possession shall be sold under the condition of redemption.
25 If your brother, being in need, will have sold his little possession and his close relative is willing, he is able to redeem what he had sold.
26 But if he has no near relative, and he himself is able to find the price to redeem it,
27 the produce shall be calculated from that time when he sold it. And what is lacking, he shall repay to the buyer, and so he shall receive his possession.
28 But if his hand will not have discovered a way to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the Jubilee. For in that year all that has been sold shall return to the owner, and to the original possessor.
29 Whoever will have sold a house within the walls of a city shall have the freedom to redeem it, until one year has been completed.
30 If he has not redeemed it, and the year will have turned full circle, the buyer and his posterity shall possess it, in perpetuity, and it is not able to be redeemed, even in the Jubilee.
31 But if the house is in a village, which has no walls, it shall be sold by the law of the fields. If it has not been redeemed beforehand, then in the Jubilee it shall return to the owner.
32 The buildings of the Levites, which are in the cities, are always able to be redeemed.
33 If they have not been redeemed, then in the Jubilee they shall return to the owners, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possession among the sons of Israel.
34 But let not their suburbs be sold, for it is an everlasting possession.
35 If your brother has become impoverished, or infirm of hand, and you take him in, like a newcomer or a sojourner, and he lives with you,
36 do not accept usury from him, nor anything more than what you gave. Fear your God, so that your brother may be able to live with you.
37 You shall not give him your money by usury, nor exact from him an overabundance of produce.
38 I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, so that I might give to you the land of Canaan, and so that I may be your God.
39 If your brother, having been compelled by poverty, will have sold himself to you, you shall not oppress him with the servitude of indentured servants.
40 But he shall be like a hired hand or a settler; he shall work with you, until the year of the Jubilee.
41 And after that, he shall depart with his children, and he shall return to his kindred, to the possession of his fathers.
42 For these are my servants, and I led them away from the land of Egypt; let them not be sold into the condition of servitude.
43 Do not afflict him by power, but be fearful of your God.
44 Let your male and female servants be from the nations which are all around you,
45 and from the newcomers who sojourn with you, or who have been born from them in your land. These you shall have as servants,
46 and, by the right of inheritance, you shall transmit them to your posterity, and you shall possess them forever. But do not oppress your brothers, the sons of Israel, by power.
47 If the hand of a newcomer or a sojourner will have grown strong among you, and your brother, having become impoverished, will have sold himself to him, or to any of his stock,
48 after the sale, he is able to be redeemed. Whoever is willing among his brothers shall redeem him:
49 either the paternal uncle, or the paternal uncle's son, or his close relative, by blood or by affinity. But if he himself will be able also, he shall redeem himself,
50 considering only the years from the time of his selling until the year of the Jubilee, and calculating the money for which he was sold, according to the number of years and the accounting of a hired hand.
51 If there will have been many years which remain until the Jubilee, according to these shall he also repay the price.
52 If few, he shall determine the accounting with him according to the number of years, and he shall repay to the buyer by what is left remaining of the years;
53 his wages being charged by what served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight.
54 But if, by these means, he will not be able to be redeemed, then in the year of the Jubilee he shall depart with his children.
55 For they are my servants, the sons of Israel, whom I led away from the land of Egypt.
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Leviticus 25: CPDV
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Leviticus 25
25
The sabbatical year
1The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2Speak to the Israelites and say to them: Once you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must celebrate a sabbath rest to the LORD. 3You will plant your fields for six years, and prune your vineyards and gather their crops for six years. 4But in the seventh year the land will have a special sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the LORD: You must not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. 5You must not harvest the secondary growth of your produce or gather the grapes of your freely growing vines. It will be a year of special rest for the land. 6Whatever the land produces during its sabbath will be your food—for you, for your male and female servants, and for your hired laborers and foreign guests who live with you, 7as well as for your livestock and for the wild animals in your land. All of the land’s produce can be eaten.
The Jubilee year
8Count off seven weeks of years—that is, seven times seven—so that the seven weeks of years totals forty-nine years. 9Then have the trumpet#25.9 Heb shofar blown on the tenth day of the seventh month.#25.9 September–October, Tishrei Have the trumpet blown throughout your land on the Day of Reconciliation. 10You will make the fiftieth year holy, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee year#25.10 Heb yobel for you: each of you must return to your family property and to your extended family. 11The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee year for you. Do not plant, do not harvest the secondary growth, and do not gather from the freely growing vines 12because it is a Jubilee: it will be holy to you. You can eat only the produce directly out of the field. 13Each of you must return to your family property in this year of Jubilee.
14When you sell something to or buy something from your fellow citizen, you must not cheat each other. 15You will buy from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the Jubilee; he will sell to you according to the number of years left for harvests. 16You will raise the price if there are more years, or lower the price if there are less years because it is the number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17You must not cheat each other but fear your God because I am the LORD your God. 18You will observe my rules, and you will keep my regulations and do them so that you can live securely on the land.
Food during fallow years
19The land will give its fruit so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20Suppose you ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or gather our crops then?” 21I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year so that it will make enough produce for three years. 22You can plant again in the eighth year and eat food from the previous year’s produce until the ninth year. Until its produce comes, you will eat the food from the previous year.
Buying back family property
23The land must not be permanently sold because the land is mine. You are just immigrants and foreign guests of mine.
24Throughout the whole land that you possess, you must allow for the land to be bought back. 25When one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and must sell part of their family property, the closest relative#25.25 Or next of kin; traditionally redeemer will come and buy back what their fellow Israelite has sold. 26If the person doesn’t have someone to buy it back, but then manages to afford buying it back, 27they must calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the person to whom they sold it. Then it will go back to the family property.#25.27 Or they will go back to their family property; also in 25:28. 28If they cannot afford to make a refund to the buyer, whatever was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Jubilee year. It will be released in the Jubilee year, at which point it will return to the family property.
29When a person sells a home in a walled city, it may be bought back until a year after its sale. The period for buying it back will be one year. 30If it is not bought back before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city will belong to the buyer permanently and their descendants forever. It will not be released at the Jubilee. 31But houses in settlements that are unwalled will be considered as if they were country fields. They can be bought back, and they must be released at the Jubilee.
32Levites will always have the right to buy back homes in the levitical cities that are part of their family property. 33Levite property that can be bought back—houses sold in a city that is their family property—must be released at the Jubilee, because homes in levitical cities are the Levites’ family property among the Israelites. 34But the pastureland around their cities cannot be sold, because that is their permanent family property.
Poor Israelites and slavery
35If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and is in a shaky situation with you,#25.35 Heb uncertain you must assist them as you would an immigrant or foreign guest so that they can survive among you. 36Do not take interest from them, or any kind of profit from interest, but fear your God so that your fellow Israelite can survive among you. 37Do not lend a poor Israelite money with interest or lend food at a profit. 38I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you Canaan’s land and to be your God.
39If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty with you and sells themselves to you, you must not make him work as a slave. 40Instead, they will be like a hired laborer or foreign guest to you. They will work for you until the Jubilee year, 41at which point the poor Israelite along with their children will be released from you. They can return to their extended family and to their family property. 42You must do this because these people are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land. They must not be sold as slaves. 43You will not harshly rule over them but must fear your God.
44Regarding male or female slaves that you are allowed to have: You can buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you. 45You can also buy them from the foreign guests who live with you and from their extended families that are with you, who were born in your land. These can belong to you as property. 46You can pass them on to your children as inheritance that they can own as permanent property. You can make these people work as slaves, but you must not rule harshly over your own people, the Israelites.
47If an immigrant or foreign guest prospers financially among you, but your fellow Israelite faces financial difficulty and so sells themselves to the immigrant or foreign guest, or to a descendant of a foreigner, 48the Israelite will have the right to be bought back after they sold themselves. One of their relatives can buy them back: 49their uncle or cousin can buy them back; one of their blood relatives from their family can buy them back; or they may be able to afford their own purchase. 50The Israelite will calculate with their owner the time from the year they were sold until the Jubilee year. The price of their release will be based on the number of years they were with the owner, as in the case of a hired laborer. 51If there are many years left before the Jubilee, the Israelite will pay for their purchase in proportion to their purchase price. 52If only a few years are left, they will calculate that and pay for their purchase according to the years of service. 53Regardless, the Israelite will be to the buyer like a yearly laborer; the buyer must not harshly rule over them in your sight. 54If the Israelite is not bought back in one of these ways, they and their children must be released in the Jubilee year 55because the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land; I am the LORD your God.
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