13 (A)On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. 14 Furthermore, if you make a sale to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, (B)you shall not [a]wrong one another. 15 Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your [b]friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. 16 (C)In proportion to [c]a greater number of years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to [d]fewer years you shall decrease its price, because it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. 17 So (D)you shall not [e]wrong one another, but you shall [f]fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

18 ‘You shall therefore [g]follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that (E)you may live securely on the land. 19 Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20 But if you say, “(F)What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?” 21 then (G)I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years. 22 When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat (H)old things from the produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in.

The Law of Redemption

23 ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because (I)the land is Mine; for (J)you are only strangers and residents with Me. 24 So for every [h]piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

25 (K)If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest [i]redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. 26 Or in case someone has no redeemer, but [j]recovers to find sufficient means for its redemption, 27 (L)then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property. 28 But if [k]he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall [l]revert, so that (M)he may return to his property.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 25:14 Lit oppress
  2. Leviticus 25:15 Lit friend’s hands
  3. Leviticus 25:16 Lit the multitude of
  4. Leviticus 25:16 Lit the years being few
  5. Leviticus 25:17 Lit oppress
  6. Leviticus 25:17 Or revere
  7. Leviticus 25:18 Lit do My
  8. Leviticus 25:24 Lit land
  9. Leviticus 25:25 I.e., male relative to act in his behalf
  10. Leviticus 25:26 Lit his hand reaches
  11. Leviticus 25:28 Lit his hand has not found sufficient to
  12. Leviticus 25:28 Lit go out

13 In 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. 15 When 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. 16 The 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. 17 Show 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. 19 Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it. 20 But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ 21 Be 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. 22 When 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. 25 If 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. 26 If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, 27 he 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. 28 But 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.

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