Leviticus 25:47-27:13

New American Standard Bible

Of Redeeming a Person Who Is Poor

⁴⁷ ‘Now if the ^[a]means of a stranger or of a foreign resident with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes poor in relation to him and sells himself to a stranger who is residing with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family, ⁴⁸ then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle, or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or ^[b](A)if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He then, with his purchaser, shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years calculated. It is like the days of a hired worker that he will be with him. ⁵¹ If there are still many years remaining, ^(B)he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption; ⁵² but if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption. ⁵³ He shall be with him like a worker hired year by year; ^(C)he shall not rule over him with ^[c]severity in your sight. ⁵⁴ Even if he is not redeemed by ^[d]these means, ^(D)he shall still leave in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. ⁵⁵ For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Blessings of Obedience

26 ‘You shall not make for yourselves ^(E)idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ^(F)a carved image or ^(G)a memorial stone, nor shall you place a ^(H)figured stone in your land to bow down ^[e]to it; for I am the Lord your God. ^2 (I)You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord. ^3 (J)If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, ⁴ then ^(K)I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ^5 (L)Indeed, your threshing season will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. So you will eat your ^[f]food to the full and ^(M)live securely in your land. ^6 (N)I shall also grant peace in the land, so that ^(O)you may lie down, with no one to make you afraid. ^(P)I shall also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and ^(Q)no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ Instead, you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; ^8 (R)five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹ So I will turn toward you and ^(S)make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will ^(T)confirm My covenant with you. ¹⁰ And ^(U)you will eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. ^11 (V)Moreover, I will make My ^[g]dwelling among you, and My soul will not ^[h]reject you. ^12 (W)I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ^13 (X)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and ^(Y)I broke your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴ ‘^(Z)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you ^(AA)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(AB)break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^[i]summon a ^(AC)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(AD)soul languish; also, ^(AE)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and ^(AF)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(AG)you will flee when no one is pursuing you. ¹⁸ If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ^(AH)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will also ^(AI)break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (AJ)Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹ ‘Yet if you ^[j](AK)show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(AL)seven times according to your sins. ^22 (AM)I will also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that ^(AN)your roads become deserted.

²³ ‘^(AO)And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me, ²⁴ then I in turn will ^(AP)show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(AQ)seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(AR)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(AS)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy. ^26 (AT)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^[k]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(AU)eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷ ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁸ then ^(AV)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Further, ^(AW)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I then ^(AX)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(AY)incense altars, and ^[l]pile your ^[m]remains on the ^[n]remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you. ³¹ I will turn your cities into ^(AZ)ruins as well and make your ^(BA)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(BB)smell your soothing aromas. ³² And I will make ^(BC)the land desolate ^(BD)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³ You, however, I ^(BE)will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

³⁴ ‘^(BF)Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for those among you who are left, I will also bring ^(BG)despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[o]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ^37 (BH)They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ Instead, ^(BI)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ^39 (BJ)So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

⁴⁰ ‘But ^(BK)if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹ I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(BL)or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that ^(BM)they then make amends for their wrongdoing, ⁴² then I will remember ^(BN)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(BO)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(BP)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ^43 (BQ)For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, ^[p]because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(BR)soul loathed My statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ^(BS)loathe them as ^(BT)to destroy them, ^(BU)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will remember for them the ^(BV)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that ^(BW)I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

^46 (BX)These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[q]through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Assessments

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(BY)When someone makes an explicit vow, he shall be valued according to your assessment of persons belonging to the Lord. ³ If your assessment is of a male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your assessment shall be fifty shekels of silver, by ^(BZ)the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴ Or if ^[r]the person is a female, then your assessment shall be thirty shekels. ⁵ And if the person is from five years even to twenty years old, then your assessment for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁶ But if the person is from a month even up to five years old, then your assessment shall be ^(CA)five shekels of silver for a male, and for a female your assessment shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷ If the person is from sixty years old and upward, if a male, then your assessment shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁸ But if he is poorer than your assessment, then he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; ^(CB)according to ^[s]the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall assess him.

⁹ ‘Now if it is an animal of the kind that ^[t]one can present as an offering to the Lord, any such animal that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. ^10 (CC)He shall not replace it nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; yet if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. ¹¹ If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which ^[u]one does not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest. ¹² And the priest shall assess it ^[v]as either good or bad; as you, the priest, assess it, so shall it be. ¹³ But if he should ever want to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it to your assessment.