Leviticus 25:29-26:2

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁹ “If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the Jubilee. ³¹ But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. ³² As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them.^{(A) 33} Whatever property of the Levites that may be redeemed, that is, houses sold in a city belonging to them, shall be released in the Jubilee, for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites. ³⁴ But the pasturelands around their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession for all time.

³⁵ “If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you,^[a] you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.^{(B) 36} Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you.^{(C) 37} You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance or provide them food at a profit. ³⁸ I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.^(D)

³⁹ “If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves.^{(E) 40} They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then they and their children with them shall go out from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property.^{(F) 42} For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. ⁴³ You shall not rule over them with harshness but shall fear your God.^{(G) 44} As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property.^{(H) 46} You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.^(I)

⁴⁷ “If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien or to a branch of the alien’s family, ⁴⁸ even after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them,^{(J) 49} or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them, or if they prosper they may redeem themselves.^{(K) 50} They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the Jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer.^{(L) 51} If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price,^{(M) 52} and if few years remain until the Jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. ⁵³ As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go out in the Jubilee year. ⁵⁵ For to me the Israelites are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Rewards for Obedience

26 “You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them, for I am the Lord your God.^{(N) 2} You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.^(O)