Leviticus 25:25-41

English Standard Version

²⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, ^(A)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 ^(B)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 ^(C)be released, and ^(D)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; ^(E)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 ^(F)they shall be released in the jubilee. ³² As for ^(G)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 ^(H)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, ^(I)you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. ^36 (J)Take no interest from him or profit, but ^(K)fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. ^37 (L)You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ^38 (M)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 (N)“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 (O)Then he shall go out from you, ^(P)he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ^(Q)to the possession of his fathers.