Leviticus 25-27

New American Standard Bible

The Sabbatical Year and Year of Jubilee

25 The Lord then spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am going to give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the Lord. ³For ^(A)six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce, ⁴but during ^(B)the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ⁵You shall not reap your harvest’s ^[a]aftergrowth, and you shall not gather your grapes of untrimmed vines; the land shall have a sabbatical year. ⁶^(C)All of you shall have the Sabbath produce of the land as food; for yourself, your male and female slaves, and your hired worker and your foreign resident, those who live as strangers among you. ⁷Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its produce to eat.

⁸‘You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, that is, forty-nine years. ⁹You shall then sound a ram’s horn ^[b]abroad on ^(D)the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. ¹⁰So you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and ^(E)proclaim ^[c]a release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, ^[d]and ^(F)each of you shall return to his own property, ^[e]and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor harvest its aftergrowth, nor gather grapes from its untrimmed vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field.

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

¹⁸‘You shall therefore ^[l]follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that ^(K)you may live securely on the land. ¹⁹Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. ²⁰But if you say, “^(L)What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?” ²¹then ^(M)I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years. ²²When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat ^(N)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 ^(O)the land is Mine; for ^(P)you are only strangers and residents with Me. ²⁴So for every ^[m]piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵‘^(Q)If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest ^[n]redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. ²⁶Or in case someone has no redeemer, but ^[o]recovers to find sufficient means for its redemption, ²⁷^(R)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. ²⁸But if ^[p]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 ^[q]revert, so that ^(S)he may return to his property.

²⁹‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year after its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. ³⁰But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not ^[r]revert in the jubilee. ³¹The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded ^[s]as open fields; they have redemption rights and ^[t]revert in the jubilee. ³²As for the ^(T)cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. ³³What, therefore, ^[u]belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale ^[v]in the city of this possession ^[w]reverts in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. ³⁴^(U)But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.

Of Poor Countrymen

³⁵‘^(V)Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his ^[x]means among you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a resident, so that he may live with you. ³⁶^(W)Do not take ^[y]any kind of interest from him, but ^[z]fear your God, so that your countryman may live with you. ³⁷You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food ^[aa]for profit. ³⁸^(X)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and ^(Y)to be your God.

³⁹‘Now ^(Z)if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. ⁴⁰He shall be with you as a hired worker, ^(AA)as if he were a foreign resident; he shall serve with you up to the year of jubilee. ⁴¹He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, so that he may return to the property of his forefathers. ⁴²For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale. ⁴³^(AB)You shall not rule over him with ^[ab]severity, but are to revere your God. ⁴⁴As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. ⁴⁵You may also acquire them from the sons of the foreign residents who reside among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. ⁴⁶You may also pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. ^(AC)But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with ^[ac]severity over one another.

Of Redeeming a Person Who Is Poor

⁴⁷‘Now if the ^[ad]means of a stranger or of a foreign resident with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes poor in relation to him and sells himself to a stranger who is residing with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family, ⁴⁸then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹or his uncle, or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or ^[ae]^(AD)if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰He then, with his purchaser, shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years calculated. It is like the days of a hired worker that he will be with him. ⁵¹If there are still many years remaining, ^(AE)he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption; ⁵²but if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption. ⁵³He shall be with him like a worker hired year by year; ^(AF)he shall not rule over him with ^[af]severity in your sight. ⁵⁴Even if he is not redeemed by ^[ag]these means, ^(AG)he shall still leave in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. ⁵⁵For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Blessings of Obedience

26 ‘You shall not make for yourselves ^(AH)idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ^(AI)a carved image or ^(AJ)a memorial stone, nor shall you place a ^(AK)figured stone in your land to bow down ^[ah]to it; for I am the Lord your God. ²^(AL)You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord. ³^(AM)If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, ⁴then ^(AN)I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ⁵^(AO)Indeed, your threshing season will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. So you will eat your ^[ai]food to the full and ^(AP)live securely in your land. ⁶^(AQ)I shall also grant peace in the land, so that ^(AR)you may lie down, with no one to make you afraid. ^(AS)I shall also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and ^(AT)no sword will pass through your land. ⁷Instead, you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; ⁸^(AU)five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹So I will turn toward you and ^(AV)make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will ^(AW)confirm My covenant with you. ¹⁰And ^(AX)you will eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. ¹¹^(AY)Moreover, I will make My ^[aj]dwelling among you, and My soul will not ^[ak]reject you. ¹²^(AZ)I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ¹³^(BA)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and ^(BB)I broke your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴‘^(BC)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵if, instead, you ^(BD)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(BE)break My covenant, ¹⁶I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^[al]summon a ^(BF)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(BG)soul languish; also, ^(BH)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and ^(BI)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(BJ)you will flee when no one is pursuing you. ¹⁸If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ^(BK)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹I will also ^(BL)break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰^(BM)Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹‘Yet if you ^[am]^(BN)show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(BO)seven times according to your sins. ²²^(BP)I will also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that ^(BQ)your roads become deserted.

²³‘^(BR)And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me, ²⁴then I in turn will ^(BS)show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(BT)seven times for your sins. ²⁵I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(BU)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(BV)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy. ²⁶^(BW)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^[an]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(BX)eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁸then ^(BY)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹Further, ^(BZ)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰I then ^(CA)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(CB)incense altars, and ^[ao]pile your ^[ap]remains on the ^[aq]remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you. ³¹I will turn your cities into ^(CC)ruins as well and make your ^(CD)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(CE)smell your soothing aromas. ³²And I will make ^(CF)the land desolate ^(CG)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³You, however, I ^(CH)will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

³⁴‘^(CI)Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths. ³⁵All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶As for those among you who are left, I will also bring ^(CJ)despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[ar]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ³⁷^(CK)They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies. ³⁸Instead, ^(CL)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ³⁹^(CM)So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

⁴⁰‘But ^(CN)if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(CO)or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that ^(CP)they then make amends for their wrongdoing, ⁴²then I will remember ^(CQ)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(CR)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(CS)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ⁴³^(CT)For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, ^[as]because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(CU)soul loathed My statutes. ⁴⁴Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ^(CV)loathe them as ^(CW)to destroy them, ^(CX)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵But I will remember for them the ^(CY)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that ^(CZ)I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

⁴⁶^(DA)These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[at]through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Assessments

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(DB)When someone makes an explicit vow, he shall be valued according to your assessment of persons belonging to the Lord. ³If your assessment is of a male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your assessment shall be fifty shekels of silver, by ^(DC)the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴Or if ^[au]the person is a female, then your assessment shall be thirty shekels. ⁵And if the person is from five years even to twenty years old, then your assessment for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁶But if the person is from a month even up to five years old, then your assessment shall be ^(DD)five shekels of silver for a male, and for a female your assessment shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷If the person is from sixty years old and upward, if a male, then your assessment shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁸But if he is poorer than your assessment, then he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; ^(DE)according to ^[av]the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall assess him.

⁹‘Now if it is an animal of the kind that ^[aw]one can present as an offering to the Lord, any such animal that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. ¹⁰^(DF)He shall not replace it nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; yet if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. ¹¹If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which ^[ax]one does not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest. ¹²And the priest shall assess it ^[ay]as either good or bad; as you, the priest, assess it, so shall it be. ¹³But if he should ever want to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it to your assessment.

¹⁴‘Now if someone consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall assess it ^[az]as either good or bad; as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand. ¹⁵Yet if the one who consecrates it should want to redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶‘Again, if someone consecrates to the Lord part of the field of his own property, then your assessment shall be ^[ba]proportionate to the seed needed for it: a ^[bb]homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your assessment it shall stand. ¹⁸If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for ^[bc]him ^[bd]proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your assessment. ¹⁹If the one who consecrates it should ever want to redeem the field, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may belong to him. ²⁰Yet if he does not redeem the field, ^[be]but has sold the field to another person, it may no longer be redeemed; ²¹and when it ^[bf]reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field banned from secular use; ^(DG)it shall be for the priest as his property. ²²Or if he consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property, ²³then the priest shall calculate for ^[bg]him the amount of your assessment up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your assessment as holy to the Lord. ²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. ²⁵Every assessment of yours, moreover, shall be by ^(DH)the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

²⁶‘^(DI)However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no one may consecrate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ^[bh]redeem it according to your assessment and add to it a fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your assessment.

²⁸‘Nevertheless, ^(DJ)^[bi]anything which someone sets apart to the Lord for ^[bj]destruction out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the field of his own property, shall not be sold nor redeemed. Anything set apart for destruction is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹No ^[bk]one who may have been ^[bl]set apart among mankind shall be ransomed; he must be put to death.

³⁰‘Now ^(DK)all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. ³¹If, therefore, someone should ever want to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it a fifth of it. ³²For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever ^(DL)passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. ³³^(DM)He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; yet if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”