Leviticus 25:1-34

Easy-to-Read Version

A Time of Rest for the Land

25 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai. He said, ² “Tell the Israelites: When you enter the land that I am giving to you, you must let the land have a special time of rest. This will be a special time of rest to honor the Lord. ³ You will plant seed in your field for six years. You will trim your vineyards for six years and bring in its fruits. ⁴ But during the seventh year, you will let the land rest. This will be a special time of rest to honor the Lord. You must not plant seed in your field or trim your vineyards. ⁵ You must not cut the crops that grow by themselves after your harvest. You must not gather the grapes from your vines that are not trimmed. The land will have a year of rest.

⁶ “The land will have a year of rest, but you will still have enough food. There will be enough food for your men and women servants. There will be food for your hired workers and for the foreigners living in your country. ⁷ And there will be enough food for your cattle and other animals to eat.

Jubilee—the Year of Release

⁸ “You will also count seven groups of seven years. This will be 49 years. During that time there will be seven years of rest for the land. ⁹ On the Day of Atonement, you must blow a ram’s horn. That will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. You must blow the ram’s horn through the whole country. ¹⁰ You will make the 50th year a special year. You will announce freedom for everyone living in your country. This time will be called ‘Jubilee.’ Each of you will go back to your own property.^[a] And each of you will go back to your own family. ¹¹ The 50th year will be a special celebration^[b] for you. Don’t plant seeds, don’t harvest the crops that grow by themselves, and don’t gather grapes from the vines that are not trimmed. ¹² That year is Jubilee. It will be a holy time for you. You will eat the crops that come from the field. ¹³ In the year of Jubilee, you will go back to your own property.

¹⁴ “Don’t cheat your neighbors when you sell your land to them. Don’t cheat one another when you buy or sell land. ¹⁵ If you want to buy your neighbor’s land, count the number of years since the last Jubilee, and use that number to decide the right price. You are only buying the rights for harvesting crops until the next Jubilee. ¹⁶ If there are many years before the next Jubilee, the price will be high. If the years are few, the price will be lower. So your neighbor is really only selling a number of crops to you. At the next Jubilee, the land will again belong to that family. ¹⁷ You must not cheat each other. You must honor your God. I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ “Remember my laws and rules. Obey them and you will live safely in your country. ¹⁹ And the land will produce good crops for you. Then you will have plenty of food, and you will live safely on the land.

²⁰ “But maybe you will say, ‘If we don’t plant seeds or gather our crops, we will not have anything to eat during the seventh year.’ ²¹ I will order my blessing to come to you during the sixth year. The land will continue growing crops for three years. ²² When you plant in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the old crop. You will eat the old crop until the ninth year, when the crop you planted in the eighth year comes in.

Property Laws

²³ “The land really belongs to me, so you cannot sell it permanently. You are only foreigners and travelers living on my land with me. ²⁴ People might sell their land, but the family will always get their land back. ²⁵ If someone in your country becomes very poor and must sell their property, a close relative must come and buy it back. ²⁶ If there is not a close relative to buy back the land, the person might get enough money to buy it back. ²⁷ Then the years must be counted since the land was sold. That number must be used to decide how much to pay for the land. The person must then buy back the land, and it will be their property again. ²⁸ But if this first owner cannot find enough money to buy the land back, it will stay in the hands of the one who bought it until the year of Jubilee. Then during that special celebration, the land will go back to the first owner’s family. So the property will again belong to the right family.

²⁹ “Anyone who sells a home in a walled city still has the right to get it back until a full year after it was sold. Their right to get the house back will continue one year. ³⁰ But if the owner does not buy back the house before a full year is finished, the house that is in the walled city will belong to the one who bought it and to their descendants. The house will not go back to the first owner at the time of Jubilee. ³¹ Towns without walls around them will be treated like open fields. So houses built in these small towns will go back to the first owners at the time of Jubilee.

³² “But about the cities of the Levites: The Levites can buy back at any time their houses in the cities that belong to them. ³³ If someone buys a house from a Levite, that house in the Levites’ city will again belong to the Levites at the time of Jubilee. This is because houses in Levite cities belong to those from the tribe of Levi. The Israelites gave these cities to the Levites. ³⁴ Also, the fields and pastures around the Levite cities cannot be sold. They belong to the Levites forever.