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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© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 25
25
The Sabbath Year
1While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, 2“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord every seventh year. 3For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, 4but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. 5And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. 6But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. 7Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces.
The Year of Jubilee
8“In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up to forty-nine years in all. 9Then on the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year,#25:9 Hebrew on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement; see 23:27a and the note there. blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land. 10Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan. 11This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own, and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. 12It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own. 13In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors.
14“When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other. 15When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. 16The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests. 17Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God.
18“If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. 19Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it. 20But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ 21Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years. 22When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year.
Redemption of Property
23“The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.
24“With every purchase of land you must grant the seller the right to buy it back. 25If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him. 26If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, 27he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it. The price of the land will be discounted according to the number of years until the next Year of Jubilee. In this way the original owner can then return to the land. 28But if the original owner cannot afford to buy back the land, it will remain with the new owner until the next Year of Jubilee. In the jubilee year, the land must be returned to the original owners so they can return to their family land.
29“Anyone who sells a house inside a walled town has the right to buy it back for a full year after its sale. During that year, the seller retains the right to buy it back. 30But if it is not bought back within a year, the sale of the house within the walled town cannot be reversed. It will become the permanent property of the buyer. It will not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. 31But a house in a village—a settlement without fortified walls—will be treated like property in the countryside. Such a house may be bought back at any time, and it must be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.
32“The Levites always have the right to buy back a house they have sold within the towns allotted to them. 33And any property that is sold by the Levites—all houses within the Levitical towns—must be returned in the Year of Jubilee. After all, the houses in the towns reserved for the Levites are the only property they own in all Israel. 34The open pastureland around the Levitical towns may never be sold. It is their permanent possession.
Redemption of the Poor and Enslaved
35“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident and allow him to live with you. 36Do not charge interest or make a profit at his expense. Instead, show your fear of God by letting him live with you as your relative. 37Remember, do not charge interest on money you lend him or make a profit on food you sell him. 38I am the Lord 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 one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave. 40Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. 41At that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally allotted to their ancestors. 42The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves. 43Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly.
44“However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. 45You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, 46passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way.
47“Suppose a foreigner or temporary resident becomes rich while living among you. If any of your fellow Israelites fall into poverty and are forced to sell themselves to such a foreigner or to a member of his family, 48they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother, 49an uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy them back. They may also redeem themselves if they have prospered. 50They will negotiate the price of their freedom with the person who bought them. The price will be based on the number of years from the time they were sold until the next Year of Jubilee—whatever it would cost to hire a worker for that period of time. 51If many years still remain until the jubilee, they will repay the proper proportion of what they received when they sold themselves. 52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they will repay a small amount for their redemption. 53The foreigner must treat them as workers hired on a yearly basis. You must not allow a foreigner to treat any of your fellow Israelites harshly. 54If any Israelites have not been bought back by the time the Year of Jubilee arrives, they and their children must be set free at that time. 55For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
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