Leviticus 25:39-26:9

English Standard Version

³⁹^(A)“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. ⁴¹^(B)Then he shall go out from you, ^(C)he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ^(D)to the possession of his fathers. ⁴²For they are ^(E)my servants,^[a] whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³^(F)You shall not rule over him ^(G)ruthlessly but ^(H)shall fear your God. ⁴⁴As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. ⁴⁵^(I)You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. ⁴⁶You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel ^(J)you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

⁴⁷“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and ^(K)your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, ⁴⁸then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹or his uncle or his cousin may ^(L)redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ^(M)grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be ^(N)rated as the time of a hired worker. ⁵¹If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵²If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. ⁵³He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. ^(O)He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed by these means, then ^(P)he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵For it is ^(Q)to me that the people of Israel are servants.^[b] They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Blessings for Obedience

26 “You shall not make ^(R)idols for yourselves or erect an ^(S)image or ^(T)pillar, and you shall not set up a ^(U)figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ²^(V)You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³^(W)“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, ⁴then ^(X)I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵^(Y)Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And ^(Z)you shall eat your bread to the full and ^(AA)dwell in your land securely. ⁶^(AB)I will give peace in the land, and ^(AC)you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And ^(AD)I will remove harmful beasts from the land, ^(AE)and the sword shall not go through your land. ⁷You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ⁸^(AF)Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. ⁹^(AG)I will turn to you and ^(AH)make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.