Leviticus 25
25
Sabbath Years and Jubilee
1The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to the Lord. 3You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. 4But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest # Lv 16:31 for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You are not to reap what grows by itself from your crop, or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. 6Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you — for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you. 7All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.
8“You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to 49. 9Then you are to sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement. # Lv 23:27 10You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, # Lv 27:17-24; Nm 36:4; Dt 15:1 when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan. 11The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines. 12It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.
13“In this Year of Jubilee, each of you will return to his property. 14If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, do not cheat # Dt 23:16 one another. 15You are to make the purchase from your neighbor based on the number of years since the last Jubilee. He is to sell to you based on the number of remaining harvest years. 16You are to increase its price in proportion to a greater amount of years, and decrease its price in proportion to a lesser amount of years, because what he is selling to you is a number of harvests. 17You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.
18“You are to keep My statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land. # Lv 18:4-5,26; 19:37; 20:8,22; 26:3-5 19Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. 20If you wonder: ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce? ’ 21I will appoint My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.
23“The land is not to be permanently sold because it is Mine, and you are only foreigners and temporary residents on My land. # Lit residents with Me # 1Ch 29:15; Heb 11:13 24You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy. 25If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers # Lit but his hand reaches and obtains enough to redeem his land, 27he may calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man he sold it to, and return to his property. 28But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of its purchaser until the Year of Jubilee. It is to be released at the Jubilee, so that he may return to his property.
29“If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year. 30If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee. 31But houses in villages that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.
32“Concerning the Levitical cities, # Nm 35:1-8; Dt 18:1-2; 19:2-9; Jos 21; 1Ch 6:54-81 the Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess. 33Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem # Hb obscure — a house sold in a city they possess — must be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possession among the Israelites. 34The open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.
35“If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among # Lit and his hand falters with you, you are to support him as a foreigner or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. 36Do not profit or take interest from him, # Ex 22:25; Dt 23:19-20; Ezk 22:12 but fear your God and let your brother live among you. 37You are not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit. 38I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39“If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, # 2Kg 4:1; Neh 5:5; Is 50:1; Mt 18:25 you must not force him to do slave labor. 40Let him stay with you as a hired hand or temporary resident; he may work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41Then he and his children are to be released from you, and he may return to his clan and his ancestral property. # Ex 21:3-6 42They are not to be sold as slaves, # Lit sold with a sale of a slave because they are My slaves that I brought out of the land of Egypt. 43You are not to rule over them harshly # Ex 1:13-14 but fear your God. 44Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves. 45You may also purchase them from the foreigners staying with you, or from their families living among you — those born in your land. These may become your property. 46You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.
47“If a foreigner or temporary resident living among you prospers, but your brother living near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner living among you, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, 48he has the right of redemption after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. 49His uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him. If he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50The one who purchased him is to calculate the time from the year he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years. It will be set for him like the daily wages of a hired hand. 51If many years are still left, he must pay his redemption price in proportion to them based on his purchase price. 52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he will calculate and pay the price of his redemption in proportion to his remaining years. 53He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A foreign owner is not to rule over him harshly in your sight. 54If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released at the Year of Jubilee. 55For the Israelites are My slaves. # Ex 4:10 They are My slaves that I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.
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Leviticus 25: HCSB
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Leviticus 25
25
1 THE Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 Say to the Israelites, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the Lord.
3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits.
4 But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap and the grapes on your uncultivated vine you shall not gather, for it is a year of rest to the land.
6 And the sabbath rest of the [untilled] land shall [in its increase] furnish food for you, for your male and female slaves, your hired servant, and the temporary resident who lives with you,
7 For your domestic animals also and for the [wild] beasts in your land; all its yield shall be for food.
8 And you shall number seven sabbaths or weeks of years for you, seven times seven years, so the total time of the seven weeks of years shall be forty-nine years.
9 Then you shall sound abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month [almost October]; on the Day of Atonement blow the trumpet in all your land.
10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his ancestral possession [which through poverty he was compelled to sell], and each of you shall return to his family [from whom he was separated in bond service].
11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall not sow, or reap and store what grows of itself, or gather the grapes of the uncultivated vines.
12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat the [sufficient] increase of it out of the field.
13 In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his ancestral property.
14 And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor. And he shall sell to you according to the number of years [remaining in which you may gather] the crops [before you must restore the property to him].
16 If the years [to the next Jubilee] are many, you may increase the price, and if the years remaining are few, you shall diminish the price, for the number of the crops is what he is selling to you.
17 You shall not oppress and wrong one another, but you shall [reverently] fear your God. For I am the Lord your God.
18 Therefore you shall do and give effect to My statutes and keep My ordinances and perform them, and you will dwell in the land in safety.
19 The land shall yield its fruit; you shall eat your fill and dwell there in safety.
20 And if you say, What shall we eat in the seventh year if we are not to sow or gather in our increase?
21 Then [this is My answer:] I will command My [special] blessings on you in the sixth year, so that it shall bring forth [sufficient] fruit for three years.
22 And you shall sow in the eighth year, but eat of the old store of produce; until the crops of the ninth year come in you shall eat of the old supply.
23 The land shall not be sold into perpetual ownership, for the land is Mine; you are [only] strangers and temporary residents with Me. [Heb. 11:13; I Pet. 2:11-17.]
24 And in all the country you possess you shall grant a redemption for the land [in the Year of Jubilee].
25 If your brother has become poor and has sold some of his property, if any of his kin comes to redeem it, he shall [be allowed to] redeem what his brother has sold.
26 And if the man has no one to redeem his property, and he himself has become more prosperous and has enough to redeem it,
27 Then let him count the years since he sold it and restore the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his ancestral possession. [I Kings 21:2, 3.]
28 But if he is unable to redeem it, it shall remain in the buyer's possession until the Year of Jubilee, when it shall be set free and he may return to it.
29 If a man sells a dwelling house in a fortified city, he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year he may have the right of redemption.
30 And if it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the fortified city shall be made sure, permanently and without limitations, for him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not go free in the Year of Jubilee.
31 But the houses of the unwalled villages shall be counted with the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall go free in the Year of Jubilee.
32 Nevertheless, the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
33 But if a house is not redeemed by a Levite, the sold house in the city they possess shall go free in the Year of Jubilee, for the houses in the Levite cities are their ancestral possession among the Israelites.
34 But the field of unenclosed or pasture lands of their cities may not be sold; it is their perpetual possession.
35 And if your [Israelite] brother has become poor and his hand wavers [from poverty, sickness, or age and he is unable to support himself], then you shall uphold (strengthen, relieve) him, [treating him with the courtesy and consideration that you would] a stranger or a temporary resident with you [without property], so that he may live [along] with you. [I John 3:17.]
36 Charge him no interest or [portion of] increase, but fear your God, so your brother may [continue to] live along with you.
37 You shall not give him your money at interest nor lend him food at a profit.
38 I am the Lord 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 if your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a bondman (a slave not eligible for redemption),
40 But as a hired servant and as a temporary resident he shall be with you; he shall serve you till the Year of Jubilee,
41 And then he shall depart from you, he and his children with him, and shall go back to his own family and return to the possession of his fathers.
42 For the Israelites are My servants; I brought them out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen. [I Cor. 7:23.]
43 You shall not rule over him with harshness (severity, oppression), but you shall [reverently] fear your God. [Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1.]
44 As for your bondmen and your bondmaids whom you may have, they shall be from the nations round about you, of whom you may buy bondmen and bondmaids.
45 Moreover, of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them you may buy and of their families that are with you which they have begotten in your land, and they shall be your possession.
46 And you shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall you take your bondmen always, but over your brethren the Israelites you shall not rule one over another with harshness (severity, oppression).
47 And if a sojourner or stranger with you becomes rich and your [Israelite] brother becomes poor beside him and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's family,
48 After he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brethren may redeem him:
49 Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or a near kinsman may redeem him; or if he has enough and is able, he may redeem himself.
50 And [the redeemer] shall reckon with the purchaser of the servant from the year when he sold himself to the purchaser to the Year of Jubilee, and the price of his release shall be adjusted according to the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be counted as that of a hired servant.
51 If there remain many years [before the Year of Jubilee], in proportion to them he must refund [to the purchaser] for his release [the overpayment] for his acquisition.
52 And if little time remains until the Year of Jubilee, he shall count it over with him and he shall refund the proportionate amount for his release.
53 And as a servant hired year by year shall he deal with him; he shall not rule over him with harshness (severity, oppression) in your sight [make sure of that].
54 And if he is not redeemed during these years and by these means, then he shall go free in the Year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.
55 For to Me the Israelites are servants, My servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
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