Leviticus 25

1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Jehovah.3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof;4 but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto Jehovah: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.5 That which groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.6 And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger, who sojourn with thee.7 And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.

8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.9 Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines.12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

13 In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.14 And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy of thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall not wrong one another.15 According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee.16 According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops doth he sell unto thee.17 And ye shall not wrong one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am Jehovah your God.

18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.19 And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;21 then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, ye shall eat the old store.

23 And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.25 If thy brother be waxed poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold.26 And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxed rich and find sufficient to redeem it;27 then let him reckon the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession.28 But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

29 And if a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.32 Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.33 And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and 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.34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

35 And if thy brother be waxed poor, and his hand fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee.36 Take thou no interest of him or increase, but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase.38 I am Jehovah 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 thy brother be waxed poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bond-servant.40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee:41 then shall he go out 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.42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God.44 And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou shalt have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they shall be your possession.46 And ye shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall ye take your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.

47 And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxed rich, and thy brother be waxed poor beside him, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner with thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family;48 after that he is sold he may be redeemed: one of his brethren may redeem him;49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be waxed rich, he may redeem himself.50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he sold himself to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.51 If there be yet many years, according unto them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.52 And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his years shall he give back the price of his redemption.53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.54 And if he be not redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him.55 For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.

Leviticus 25

The Seventh Year

(Deut 15.1–11)

1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded himt 2 to give the following regulations to the people of Israel. When you enter the land that the Lord is giving you, you shall honour the Lord by not cultivating the land every seventh year. 3 You shall sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. 4 But the seventh year is to be a year of complete rest for the land, a year dedicated to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not even harvest the corn that grows by itself without being sown, and do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines; it is a year of complete rest for the land. 6 Although the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you,

7 your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten.

The Year of Restoration

12 The whole year shall be sacred for you; you shall eat only what the fields produce of themselves.
13 In this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to its original owner. 14 So when you sell land to your fellow-Israelite or buy land from him, do not deal unfairly. 15 The price is to be fixed according to the number of years the land can produce crops before the next Year of Restoration. 16 If there are many years, the price shall be higher, but if there are only a few years, the price shall be lower, because what is being sold is the number of crops the land can produce.

17 Do not cheat a fellow-Israelite, but obey the Lord your God.

The Problem of the Seventh Year

19 The land will produce its crops, and you will have all you want to eat and will live in safety.
20 But someone may ask what there will be to eat during the seventh year, when no fields are sown and no crops gathered. 21 The Lord will bless the land in the sixth year so that it will produce enough food for two years.

22 When you sow your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating what you harvested during the sixth year, and you will have enough to eat until the crops you plant that year are harvested.

Restoration of Property

23 Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.
24 When land is sold, the right of the original owner to buy it back must be recognized. 25 If an Israelite becomes poor and is forced to sell his land, his closest relative is to buy it back. 26 Anyone who has no relative to buy it back may later become prosperous and have enough to buy it back. 27 In that case he must pay to the man who bought it a sum that will make up for the years remaining until the next Year of Restoration, when he would in any event recover his land.

28 But if he does not have enough money to buy the land back, it remains under the control of the man who bought it until the next Year of Restoration. In that year it will be returned to its original owner.
29 If someone sells a house in a walled city, he has the right to buy it back during the first full year from the date of sale. 30 But if he does not buy it back within the year, he loses the right of repurchase, and the house becomes the permanent property of the purchaser and his descendants; it will not be returned in the Year of Restoration. 31 But houses in unwalled villages are to be treated like fields; the original owner has the right to buy them back, and they are to be returned in the Year of Restoration. 32 However, Levites have the right to buy back at any time their property in the cities assigned to them. 33 If a house in one of these cities is sold by a Levite and is not bought back, it must be returned in the Year of Restoration,t because the houses which the Levites own in their cities are their permanent property among the people of Israel.

34 But the pasture land round the Levite cities shall never be sold; it is their property for ever.

Loans to the Poor

38 This is the command of the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt in order to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

Release of Slaves

46 and you may leave them as an inheritance to your sons, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any of your fellow-Israelites harshly.
47 Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while a fellow-Israelite becomes poor and sells himself as a slave to that foreigner or to a member of his family. 48 After he is sold, he still has the right to be bought back. One of his brothers 49 or his uncle or his cousin or another of his close relatives may buy him back; or if he himself earns enough, he may buy his own freedom. 50 He must consult the one who bought him, and they must count the years from the time he sold himself until the next Year of Restoration and must set the price for his release on the basis of the wages paid to a hired servant. 51-52 He must refund a part of the purchase price according to the number of years left, 53 as if he had been hired on an annual basis. His master must not treat him harshly. 54 If he is not set free in any of these ways, he and his children must be set free in the next Year of Restoration. 55 An Israelite cannot be a permanent slave, because the people of Israel are the Lord's slaves. He brought them out of Egypt; he is the Lord their God.