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.
Currently Selected:
Leviticus 25: CPDV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
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.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.