Leviticus 25:39-55

Evangelical Heritage Version

³⁹ When your fellow Israelite becomes so indebted to you that he is sold to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave. ⁴⁰ He shall remain with you as a hired laborer or a temporary resident. He shall work for you until the year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then he and his children with him will become free from your authority. He shall return to his family home and to his ancestral landholding, ⁴² for the Israelites are my servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold in a slave sale. ⁴³ You shall not rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

⁴⁴ You may buy a male slave or a female slave for yourself from the nations around you. ⁴⁵ You may also buy some of the children of those who reside as aliens among you and some of their extended families who are born in your land, so that they become your property. ⁴⁶ You may leave them to your children as inherited property. You may make them work as slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, each of you must not rule over your brother harshly.

⁴⁷ If a resident alien living among you prospers, and if your brother Israelite becomes so indebted to him that he is sold to that alien living among you or to that alien’s family, ⁴⁸ the Israelite who has been sold shall have the right to be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone from his immediate family^[a] or extended family may redeem him, or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ Together with his buyer, he shall calculate the elapsed time from the year that he was sold until the year of Jubilee, and the price to redeem him shall be based on that number of years. It shall be calculated as if he were a hired laborer. ⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he shall pay the price of redemption proportionally to the years that have passed. ⁵² If only a few years remain until the year of Jubilee, he shall calculate the redemption in this way: He shall pay the price of his redemption on the basis of his years of work, ⁵³ as if he were a worker hired year by year. You shall see to it that the owner does not rule over him harshly. ⁵⁴ If he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children with him shall become free in the year of Jubilee, ⁵⁵ because the Israelites are servants who really belong to me. They are my servants whom I freed from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.