Leviticus 19:20-26:26

English Standard Version

²⁰ “If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; ²¹ but ^(A)he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. ²² And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.

²³ “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden.^[a] Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. ²⁴ And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God.

^26 (B)“You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. ^(C)You shall not interpret omens or ^(D)tell fortunes. ^27 (E)You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any ^(F)cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.

^29 (G)“Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. ^30 (H)You shall keep my Sabbaths and ^(I)reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

^31 (J)“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.

^32 (K)“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall ^(L)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^33 (M)“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ^34 (N)You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and ^(O)you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

^35 (P)“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. ^36 (Q)You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin:^[b] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ And ^(R)you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

Punishment for Child Sacrifice

20 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Say to the people of Israel, ^(S)Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. ^3 (T)I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary ^(U)unclean and ^(V)to profane my holy name. ⁴ And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not ^(W)put him to death, ⁵ then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in ^(X)whoring after Molech.

⁶ “If ^(Y)a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, ^(Z)I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. ^7 (AA)Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ^8 (AB)Keep my statutes and do them; ^(AC)I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ⁹ For ^(AD)anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; ^(AE)his blood is upon him.

Punishments for Sexual Immorality

¹⁰ “If a ^(AF)man commits adultery with the wife of^[c] his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. ^11 (AG)If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ^12 (AH)If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed ^(AI)perversion; their blood is upon them. ^13 (AJ)If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ^14 (AK)If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. ^15 (AL)If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. ^16 (AM)If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

^17 (AN)“If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. ^18 (AO)If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. ^19 (AP)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked ^(AQ)one's relative; they shall bear their iniquity. ^20 (AR)If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. ^21 (AS)If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity.^[d] He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

You Shall Be Holy

^22 (AT)“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not ^(AU)vomit you out. ^23 (AV)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. ²⁴ But ^(AW)I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land ^(AX)flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, ^(AY)who has separated you from the peoples. ^25 (AZ)You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ^26 (BA)You shall be holy to me, ^(BB)for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

^27 (BC)“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be ^(BD)stoned with stones; ^(BE)their blood shall be upon them.”

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^(BF)No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ² except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³ or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴ He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ^5 (BG)They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and ^(BH)not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, ^(BI)the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ^7 (BJ)They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^(BK)divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(BL)I, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^(BM)am holy. ⁹ And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ^(BN)she shall be burned with fire.

^10 (BO)“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(BP)shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹ He shall not ^(BQ)go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ^12 (BR)He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he ^(BS)profane the sanctuary of his God, for the ^(BT)consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³ And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^{[e] 14} A widow, ^(BU)or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin^[f] of his own people, ¹⁵ that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for ^(BV)I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may ^(BW)approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸ For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man ^(BX)blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face ^(BY)or a limb too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a ^(BZ)defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or ^(CA)crushed testicles. ²¹ No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to ^(CB)offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²² He may eat the bread of his God, both of ^(CC)the most holy and of the ^(CD)holy things, ²³ but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not ^(CE)profane my sanctuaries,^{[g] (CF)}for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they ^(CG)abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they ^(CH)dedicate to me, so that they do not ^(CI)profane my holy name: I am the Lord. ³ Say to them, ‘If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while ^(CJ)he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. ⁴ None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a ^(CK)discharge may eat of the holy things ^(CL)until he is clean. ^(CM)Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or ^(CN)a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵ and ^(CO)whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or ^(CP)a person from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶ the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has ^(CQ)bathed his body in water. ⁷ When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because ^(CR)they are his food. ^8 (CS)He shall not eat what dies of itself or is torn by beasts, and so make himself unclean by it: I am the Lord.’ ⁹ They shall therefore keep my charge, ^(CT)lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: ^(CU)I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

^10 (CV)“A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, ¹¹ but if a priest buys a slave^[h] as his property for money, the slave^[i] may eat of it, and ^(CW)anyone born in his house may eat of his food. ¹² If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things. ¹³ But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and has no child and ^(CX)returns to her father's house, ^(CY)as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food; yet no lay person shall eat of it. ^14 (CZ)And if anyone eats of a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add ^(DA)the fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest. ¹⁵ They ^(DB)shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, ¹⁶ and so cause them ^(DC)to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: ^(DD)for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”

Acceptable Offerings

¹⁷ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, ^(DE)When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the Lord, ¹⁹ if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a ^(DF)male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. ^20 (DG)You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. ²¹ And when anyone ^(DH)offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord ^(DI)to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. ²² Animals ^(DJ)blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or ^(DK)an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food ^(DL)offering on the altar. ²³ You may present a bull or a lamb that has a part ^(DM)too long or too short for a freewill offering, but for a vow offering it cannot be accepted. ²⁴ Any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut you shall not offer to the Lord; you shall not do it within your land, ²⁵ neither shall you offer as ^(DN)the bread of your God any such animals gotten from a foreigner. Since there is a ^(DO)blemish in them, because of their mutilation, they will not be accepted for you.”

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^27 (DP)“When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as a food offering to the Lord. ²⁸ But you shall not kill an ox or a sheep ^(DQ)and her young in one day. ²⁹ And when you sacrifice a ^(DR)sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ³⁰ It shall be eaten on the same day; ^(DS)you shall leave none of it until morning: I am the Lord.

^31 (DT)“So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. ^32 (DU)And you shall not profane my holy name, that ^(DV)I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. ^(DW)I am the Lord who sanctifies you, ³³ who brought you out of the land of Egypt ^(DX)to be your God: I am the Lord.”

Feasts of the Lord

23 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(DY)These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall ^(DZ)proclaim as ^(EA)holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.

The Sabbath

^3 (EB)“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.

The Passover

^4 (EC)“These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the ^(ED)holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. ^5 (EE)In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight,^[j] is the Lord's Passover. ⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ^7 (EF)On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. ⁸ But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”

The Feast of Firstfruits

⁹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(EG)When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of ^(EH)the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, ¹¹ and he shall ^(EI)wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹² And on the day when you ^(EJ)wave the sheaf, you shall offer a ^(EK)male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. ^13 (EL)And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah^[k] of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, ^(EM)and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.^{[l] 14} And you shall eat neither bread nor grain ^(EN)parched or ^(EO)fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The Feast of Weeks

^15 (EP)“You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the ^(EQ)wave offering. ¹⁶ You shall count ^(ER)fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of ^(ES)new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷ You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as ^(ET)firstfruits to the Lord. ¹⁸ And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹ And you shall offer one ^(EU)male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of ^(EV)peace offerings. ²⁰ And the priest shall ^(EW)wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. ^(EX)They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹ And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

²² “And ^(EY)when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

The Feast of Trumpets

²³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In ^(EZ)the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, ^(FA)a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. ²⁵ You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.”

The Day of Atonement

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “Now ^(FB)on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves^[m] and present a food offering to the Lord. ²⁸ And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹ For whoever is not afflicted^[n] on that very day ^(FC)shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰ And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. ³¹ You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. ³² It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

The Feast of Booths

³³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, ^(FD)On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths^[o] to the Lord. ³⁵ On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. ³⁶ For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. ^(FE)On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a ^(FF)solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.

^37 (FG)“These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, ^38 (FH)besides the Lord's Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

³⁹ “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have ^(FI)gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. ⁴⁰ And ^(FJ)you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and ^(FK)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. ^41 (FL)You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. ^42 (FM)You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, ⁴³ that ^(FN)your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

⁴⁴ Thus Moses ^(FO)declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.

The Lamps

24 ^(FP)The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. ³ Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴ He shall arrange the lamps on the ^(FQ)lampstand of pure gold^[p] before the Lord regularly.

Bread for the Tabernacle

⁵ “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve ^(FR)loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah^[q] shall be in each loaf. ⁶ And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, ^(FS)on the table of pure gold^[r] before the Lord. ⁷ And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. ^8 (FT)Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. ⁹ And ^(FU)it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and ^(FV)they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due.”

Punishment for Blasphemy

¹⁰ Now an Israelite woman's son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, ¹¹ and the Israelite woman's son ^(FW)blasphemed the ^(FX)Name, and cursed. Then they ^(FY)brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. ¹² And ^(FZ)they put him in custody, ^(GA)till the will of the Lord should be clear to them.

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^14 (GB)“Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him ^(GC)lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall ^(GD)bear his sin. ¹⁶ Whoever ^(GE)blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

An Eye for an Eye

^17 (GF)“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. ^18 (GG)Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. ¹⁹ If anyone injures his neighbor, ^(GH)as he has done it shall be done to him, ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. ^21 (GI)Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, ^(GJ)and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. ²² You shall have the ^(GK)same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” ²³ So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and ^(GL)they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Sabbath Year

25 ^(GM)The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into ^(GN)the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ^5 (GO)You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ⁶ The Sabbath of the land^[s] shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves^[t] and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, ⁷ and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: ^(GP)all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

⁸ “You shall count seven weeks^[u] of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall sound ^(GQ)the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. ^(GR)On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and ^(GS)proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of ^(GT)you shall return to his clan. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it ^(GU)you shall neither sow nor reap ^(GV)what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. ^(GW)You may eat the produce of the field.^[v]

^13 (GX)“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. ¹⁴ And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, ^(GY)you shall not wrong one another. ^15 (GZ)You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. ¹⁶ If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. ^17 (HA)You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

^18 (HB)“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then ^(HC)you will dwell in the land securely. ^19 (HD)The land will yield its fruit, and ^(HE)you will eat your fill ^(HF)and dwell in it securely. ²⁰ And if you say, ^(HG)‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if ^(HH)we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ ²¹ I will ^(HI)command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ^22 (HJ)When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of ^(HK)the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

Redemption of Property

²³ “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for ^(HL)the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. ²⁴ And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

²⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, ^(HM)then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷ let ^(HN)him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. ²⁸ But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall ^(HO)be released, and ^(HP)he shall return to his property.

²⁹ “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; ^(HQ)it shall not be released in the jubilee. ³¹ But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and ^(HR)they shall be released in the jubilee. ³² As for ^(HS)the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. ³³ And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. ³⁴ But the fields ^(HT)of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.

Kindness for Poor Brothers

³⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, ^(HU)you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. ^36 (HV)Take no interest from him or profit, but ^(HW)fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. ^37 (HX)You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ^38 (HY)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

^39 (HZ)“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰ he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. ^41 (IA)Then he shall go out from you, ^(IB)he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ^(IC)to the possession of his fathers. ⁴² For they are ^(ID)my servants,^[w] whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ^43 (IE)You shall not rule over him ^(IF)ruthlessly but ^(IG)shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ As 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 (IH)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. ⁴⁶ You 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 ^(II)you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

⁴⁷ “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and ^(IJ)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, ⁴⁸ then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his cousin may ^(IK)redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ^(IL)grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He 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 ^(IM)rated as the time of a hired worker. ⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵² If 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. ⁵³ He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. ^(IN)He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed by these means, then ^(IO)he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵ For it is ^(IP)to me that the people of Israel are servants.^[x] 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 ^(IQ)idols for yourselves or erect an ^(IR)image or ^(IS)pillar, and you shall not set up a ^(IT)figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ^2 (IU)You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

^3 (IV)“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, ⁴ then ^(IW)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 (IX)Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And ^(IY)you shall eat your bread to the full and ^(IZ)dwell in your land securely. ^6 (JA)I will give peace in the land, and ^(JB)you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And ^(JC)I will remove harmful beasts from the land, ^(JD)and the sword shall not go through your land. ⁷ You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ^8 (JE)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 (JF)I will turn to you and ^(JG)make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You shall eat ^(JH)old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. ^11 (JI)I will make my dwelling^[y] among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. ^12 (JJ)And I ^(JK)will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^13 (JL)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. ^(JM)And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Punishment for Disobedience

^14 (JN)“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, ¹⁵ if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but ^(JO)break my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with ^(JP)wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And ^(JQ)you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ I will ^(JR)set my face against you, and ^(JS)you shall be struck down before your enemies. ^(JT)Those who hate you shall rule over you, and ^(JU)you shall flee when none pursues you. ¹⁸ And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again ^(JV)sevenfold for your sins, ¹⁹ and I will break ^(JW)the pride of your power, and I ^(JX)will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰ And ^(JY)your strength shall be spent in vain, for ^(JZ)your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

^21 (KA)“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. ²² And ^(KB)I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that ^(KC)your roads shall be deserted.

²³ “And ^(KD)if by this discipline you are not turned to me ^(KE)but walk contrary to me, ^24 (KF)then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁵ And ^(KG)I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, ^(KH)I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. ^26 (KI)When I break your supply^[z] of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and ^(KJ)you shall eat and not be satisfied.