Leviticus 25
25
1And Jehovah spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land that I will give you, the land shall celebrate a sabbath to Jehovah. 3Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the produce thereof, 4but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Thy field shalt thou not sow, and thy vineyard shalt thou not prune. 5That which springeth up from the scattered seed of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thine undressed vines thou shalt not gather: a year of rest shall it be for the land. 6And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you, for thee, and for thy bondman, and for thy handmaid, and for thy hired servant, and for him that dwelleth as a sojourner with thee, and for thy cattle, 7and for the beasts that are in thy land: all the produce thereof shall be for food.
8And thou shalt count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; so that the days of the seven sabbaths of years be unto thee forty-nine years. 9Then shalt thou cause the loud sound of the trumpet to go forth in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the day of atonement shall ye cause the trumpet to go forth throughout your land. 10And ye shall hallow the year of the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; a year of jubilee shall it be unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family; 11a year of jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap its aftergrowth, nor gather the fruit of its undressed vines. 12For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; out of the field shall ye eat its produce. 13In this year of the jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. 14And if ye sell ought unto your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour's hand, ye shall not overreach one another. 15According to the number of years since the jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbour; according to the number of years of the produce, he shall sell unto thee. 16According to the greater number of the years, thou shalt increase the price thereof; and according to the fewness of years, thou shalt diminish the price of it; for it is the number of crops that he selleth unto thee. 17And ye shall not oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God#GodHebrew: Elohim for I am Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim 18And ye shall do my statutes, and observe mine ordinances and do them: thus shall ye dwell in your land securely. 19And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat and be satisfied, and dwell therein securely. 20And if ye say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we may not sow, nor gather in our produce; 21then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, that it may bring forth produce for three years; 22and ye shall sow in the eighth year, and ye shall eat of the old fruit until the ninth year; until her produce come in, ye shall eat the old.
23And the land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 25If thy brother grow poor, and sell of his possession, then shall his redeemer, his nearest relation, come and redeem that which his brother sold. 26And if the man have no one having right of redemption, and his hand have acquired and found what sufficeth for its redemption, 27then shall he reckon the years since the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and so return unto his possession. 28And if his hand have not found what sufficeth for him to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of the purchaser, until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. 29And if any one sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he shall have the right of redemption up to the end of the year of the sale thereof; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption. 30But if it be not redeemed until a whole year is complete, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. 31But the houses in villages that have no wall round about them shall be reckoned as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. 32But as to the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption. 33And if any one redeem from one of the Levites, then the house that was sold, in the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34And the field of the suburbs of their cities shall not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. 35And if thy brother grow poor, and he be fallen into decay beside thee, then thou shalt relieve him, be he stranger or sojourner, that he may live beside thee. 36Thou shalt take no usury nor increase of him; and thou shalt fear thy God#GodHebrew: Elohim that thy brother may live beside thee. 37Thy money shalt thou not give him upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 38I am Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God#GodHebrew: Elohim
39And if thy brother grow poor beside thee, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: 40as a hired servant, as a sojourner, shall he be with thee; until the year of jubilee shall he serve thee. 41Then shall he depart from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 42For they are my bondmen, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as men sell bondmen. 43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; and thou shalt fear thy God#GodHebrew: Elohim 44And as for thy bondman and thy handmaid whom thou shalt have — of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and handmaids. 45Moreover of the children of them that dwell as sojourners with you, of them may ye buy, and of their family that is with you, which they beget in your land, and they shall be your possession. 46And ye shall leave them as an inheritance to your children after you, to inherit them as a possession: these may ye make your bondmen for ever; but as for your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigour. 47And if a stranger or sojourner become wealthy beside thee, and thy brother beside him grow poor, and sell himself unto the stranger, who is settled by thee, or to a scion of the stranger's family, 48after that he is sold there shall be right of redemption for him; one of his brethren may redeem him. 49Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or one of his next relations of his family may redeem him; or if his means be sufficient, 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 the years, according to the days of a hired servant shall he be with him. 51If there are yet many years, according unto them shall he return his redemption money out of the money that he was bought for; 52and if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his remaining years of service shall he give him back his redemption money. 53As a hired servant shall he be with him year by year; his master shall not rule with rigour over him before thine eyes. 54And if he be not redeemed in this manner, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him. 55For the children of Israel are servants unto me; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim.
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Leviticus 25: DARBY
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Vayikra (Lev) 25
25
1Adonai spoke to Moshe on Mount Sinai; he said, 2“Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘When you enter the land I am giving you, the land itself is to observe a Shabbat rest for Adonai. 3Six years you will sow your field; six years you will prune your grapevines and gather their produce. 4But in the seventh year is to be a Shabbat of complete rest for the land, a Shabbat for Adonai; you will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines. 5You are not to harvest what grows by itself from the seeds left by your previous harvest, and you are not to gather the grapes of your untended vine; it is to be a year of complete rest for the land. 6But what the land produces during the year of Shabbat will be food for all of you — you, your servant, your maid, your employee, anyone living near you, 7your livestock and the wild animals on your land; everything the land produces may be used for food.
8“‘You are to count seven Shabbats of years, seven times seven years, that is, forty-nine years. 9Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom-Kippur, you are to sound a blast on the shofar; you are to sound the shofar all through your land; 10and you are to consecrate the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a yovel for you; you will return everyone to the land he owns, and everyone is to return to his family. 11That fiftieth year will be a yovel for you; in that year you are not to sow, harvest what grows by itself or gather the grapes of untended vines; 12because it is a yovel. It will be holy for you; whatever the fields produce will be food for all of you. 13In this year of yovel, every one of you is to return to the land he owns.
(LY: ii) 14“‘If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, neither of you is to exploit the other. 15Rather, you are to take into account the number of years after the yovel when you buy land from your neighbor, and he is to sell to you according to the number of years crops will be raised. 16If the number of years remaining is large, you will raise the price; if few years remain, you will lower it; because what he is really selling you is the number of crops to be produced. 17Thus you are not to take advantage of each other, but you are to fear your God; for I am Adonai your God.
18“‘Rather, you are to keep my regulations and rulings and act accordingly. If you do, you will live securely in the land. (RY: ii, LY: iii) 19The land will yield its produce, you will eat until you have enough, and you will live there securely.
20“‘If you ask, “If we aren’t allowed to sow seed or harvest what our land produces, what are we going to eat the seventh year?” 21then I will order my blessing on you during the sixth year, so that the land brings forth enough produce for all three years. 22The eighth year you will sow seed but eat the the old, stored produce until the ninth year; that is, until the produce of the eighth year comes in, you will eat the old, stored food.
23“‘The land is not to be sold in perpetuity, because the land belongs to me — you are only foreigners and temporary residents with me. 24Therefore, when you sell your property, you must include the right of redemption. (LY: iv) 25That is, if one of you becomes poor and sells some of his property, his next-of-kin can come and buy back what his relative sold. 26If the seller has no one to redeem it but becomes rich enough to redeem it himself, 27he will calculate the number of years the land was sold for, refund the excess to its buyer, and return to his property. 28If he hasn’t sufficient means to get it back himself, then what he sold will remain in the hands of the buyer until the year of yovel; in the yovel the buyer will vacate it and the seller return to his property.
(RY: iii, LY: v) 29“‘If someone sells a dwelling in a walled city, he has one year after the date of sale in which to redeem it. For a full year he will have the right of redemption; 30but if he has not redeemed the dwelling in the walled city within the year, then title in perpetuity passes to the buyer through all his generations; it will not revert in the yovel. 31However, houses in villages not surrounded by walls are to be dealt with like the fields in the countryside — they may be redeemed [before the yovel], and they revert in the yovel.
32“‘Concerning the cities of the L’vi’im and the houses in the cities they possess, the L’vi’im are to have a permanent right of redemption. 33If someone purchases a house from one of the L’vi’im, then the house he sold in the city where he owns property will still revert to him in the yovel; because the houses in the cities of the L’vi’im are their tribe’s possession among the people of Isra’el. 34The fields in the open land around their cities may not be sold, because that is their permanent possession.
35“‘If a member of your people has become poor, so that he can’t support himself among you, you are to assist him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident, so that he can continue living with you. 36Do not charge him interest or otherwise profit from him, but fear your God, so that your brother can continue living with you. 37Do not take interest when you loan him money or take a profit when you sell him food. 38I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to give you the land of Kena‘an and be your God.
(RY: iv, LY: vi) 39“‘If a member of your people has become poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him do the work of a slave. 40Rather, you are to treat him like an employee or a tenant; he will work for you until the year of yovel. 41Then he will leave you, he and his children with him, and return to his own family and regain possession of his ancestral land. 42For they are my slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; therefore they are not to be sold as slaves. 43Do not treat him harshly, but fear your God.
44“‘Concerning the men and women you may have as slaves: you are to buy men- and women-slaves from the nations surrounding you. 45You may also buy the children of foreigners living with you and members of their families born in your land; you may own these. 46You may also bequeath them to your children to own; from these groups you may take your slaves forever. But as far as your brothers the people of Isra’el are concerned, you are not to treat each other harshly.
(LY: vii) 47“‘If a foreigner living with you has grown rich, and a member of your people has become poor and sells himself to this foreigner living with you or to a member of the foreigner’s family, 48he may be redeemed after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or any near relative of his may redeem him; or, if he becomes rich, he may redeem himself. 50He will calculate with the person who bought him the time from the year he sold himself to him to the year of yovel; and the amount to be paid will be according to the number of years and his time at an employee’s wage. 51If many years remain, according to them will he refund the amount for his redemption from the amount he was bought for. 52If there remain only a few years until the year of yovel, then he will calculate with him; according to his years will he refund the amount for his redemption. 53He will be like a worker hired year by year. You will see to it that he is not treated harshly.
54“‘If he has not been redeemed by any of these procedures, nevertheless he will go free in the year of yovel — he and his children with him. (LY: Maftir) 55For to me the people of Isra’el are slaves; they are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God.
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