Leviticus 25
Common English Bible
The sabbatical year
25 The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: Once you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must celebrate a sabbath rest to the Lord. 3 You will plant your fields for six years, and prune your vineyards and gather their crops for six years. 4 But in the seventh year the land will have a special sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord: You must not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 You must not harvest the secondary growth of your produce or gather the grapes of your freely growing vines. It will be a year of special rest for the land. 6 Whatever the land produces during its sabbath will be your food—for you, for your male and female servants, and for your hired laborers and foreign guests who live with you, 7 as well as for your livestock and for the wild animals in your land. All of the land’s produce can be eaten.
The Jubilee year
8 Count off seven weeks of years—that is, seven times seven—so that the seven weeks of years totals forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet[a] blown on the tenth day of the seventh month.[b] Have the trumpet blown throughout your land on the Day of Reconciliation. 10 You will make the fiftieth year holy, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee year[c] for you: each of you must return to your family property and to your extended family. 11 The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee year for you. Do not plant, do not harvest the secondary growth, and do not gather from the freely growing vines 12 because it is a Jubilee: it will be holy to you. You can eat only the produce directly out of the field. 13 Each of you must return to your family property in this year of Jubilee.
14 When you sell something to or buy something from your fellow citizen, you must not cheat each other. 15 You will buy from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the Jubilee; he will sell to you according to the number of years left for harvests. 16 You will raise the price if there are more years, or lower the price if there are less years because it is the number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17 You must not cheat each other but fear your God because I am the Lord your God. 18 You will observe my rules, and you will keep my regulations and do them so that you can live securely on the land.
Food during fallow years
19 The land will give its fruit so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20 Suppose you ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or gather our crops then?” 21 I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year so that it will make enough produce for three years. 22 You can plant again in the eighth year and eat food from the previous year’s produce until the ninth year. Until its produce comes, you will eat the food from the previous year.
Buying back family property
23 The land must not be permanently sold because the land is mine. You are just immigrants and foreign guests of mine.
24 Throughout the whole land that you possess, you must allow for the land to be bought back. 25 When one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and must sell part of their family property, the closest relative[d] will come and buy back what their fellow Israelite has sold. 26 If the person doesn’t have someone to buy it back, but then manages to afford buying it back, 27 they must calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the person to whom they sold it. Then it will go back to the family property.[e] 28 If they cannot afford to make a refund to the buyer, whatever was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Jubilee year. It will be released in the Jubilee year, at which point it will return to the family property.
29 When a person sells a home in a walled city, it may be bought back until a year after its sale. The period for buying it back will be one year. 30 If it is not bought back before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city will belong to the buyer permanently and their descendants forever. It will not be released at the Jubilee. 31 But houses in settlements that are unwalled will be considered as if they were country fields. They can be bought back, and they must be released at the Jubilee.
32 Levites will always have the right to buy back homes in the levitical cities that are part of their family property. 33 Levite property that can be bought back—houses sold in a city that is their family property—must be released at the Jubilee, because homes in levitical cities are the Levites’ family property among the Israelites. 34 But the pastureland around their cities cannot be sold, because that is their permanent family property.
Poor Israelites and slavery
35 If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and is in a shaky situation with you,[f] you must assist them as you would an immigrant or foreign guest so that they can survive among you. 36 Do not take interest from them, or any kind of profit from interest, but fear your God so that your fellow Israelite can survive among you. 37 Do not lend a poor Israelite money with interest or lend food at a profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you Canaan’s land and to be your God.
39 If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty with you and sells themselves to you, you must not make him work as a slave. 40 Instead, they will be like a hired laborer or foreign guest to you. They will work for you until the Jubilee year, 41 at which point the poor Israelite along with their children will be released from you. They can return to their extended family and to their family property. 42 You must do this because these people are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land. They must not be sold as slaves. 43 You will not harshly rule over them but must fear your God.
44 Regarding male or female slaves that you are allowed to have: You can buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you. 45 You can also buy them from the foreign guests who live with you and from their extended families that are with you, who were born in your land. These can belong to you as property. 46 You can pass them on to your children as inheritance that they can own as permanent property. You can make these people work as slaves, but you must not rule harshly over your own people, the Israelites.
47 If an immigrant or foreign guest prospers financially among you, but your fellow Israelite faces financial difficulty and so sells themselves to the immigrant or foreign guest, or to a descendant of a foreigner, 48 the Israelite will have the right to be bought back after they sold themselves. One of their relatives can buy them back: 49 their uncle or cousin can buy them back; one of their blood relatives from their family can buy them back; or they may be able to afford their own purchase. 50 The Israelite will calculate with their owner the time from the year they were sold until the Jubilee year. The price of their release will be based on the number of years they were with the owner, as in the case of a hired laborer. 51 If there are many years left before the Jubilee, the Israelite will pay for their purchase in proportion to their purchase price. 52 If only a few years are left, they will calculate that and pay for their purchase according to the years of service. 53 Regardless, the Israelite will be to the buyer like a yearly laborer; the buyer must not harshly rule over them in your sight. 54 If the Israelite is not bought back in one of these ways, they and their children must be released in the Jubilee year 55 because the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land; I am the Lord your God.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 25:9 Heb shofar
- Leviticus 25:9 September–October, Tishrei
- Leviticus 25:10 Heb yobel
- Leviticus 25:25 Or next of kin; traditionally redeemer
- Leviticus 25:27 Or they will go back to their family property; also in 25:28.
- Leviticus 25:35 Heb uncertain
Leviticus 25
New American Standard Bible
The Sabbatical Year and Year of Jubilee
25 The Lord then spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am going to give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For (A)six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce, 4 but during (B)the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap your harvest’s [a]aftergrowth, and you shall not gather your grapes of untrimmed vines; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 6 (C)All of you shall have the Sabbath produce of the land as food; for yourself, your male and female slaves, and your hired worker and your foreign resident, those who live as strangers among you. 7 Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its produce to eat.
8 ‘You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, that is, forty-nine years. 9 You shall then sound a ram’s horn [b]abroad on (D)the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. 10 So you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and (E)proclaim [c]a release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, [d]and (F)each of you shall return to his own property, [e]and each of you shall return to his family. 11 You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor harvest its aftergrowth, nor gather grapes from its untrimmed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field.
13 ‘(G)On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. 14 Furthermore, if you make a sale to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, (H)you shall not [f]wrong one another. 15 Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. 16 (I)In proportion to [g]a greater number of years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to [h]fewer years you shall decrease its price, because it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. 17 So (J)you shall not [i]wrong one another, but you shall [j]fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
18 ‘You shall therefore [k]follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that (K)you may live securely on the land. 19 Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20 But if you say, “(L)What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?” 21 then (M)I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years. 22 When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat (N)old things from the produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in.
The Law of Redemption
23 ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because (O)the land is Mine; for (P)you are only strangers and residents with Me. 24 So for every [l]piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.
25 ‘(Q)If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest [m]redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. 26 Or in case someone has no redeemer, but [n]recovers to find sufficient means for its redemption, 27 (R)then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property. 28 But if [o]he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall [p]revert, so that (S)he may return to his property.
29 ‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year after its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. 30 But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not [q]revert in the jubilee. 31 The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded [r]as open fields; they have redemption rights and [s]revert in the jubilee. 32 As for the (T)cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. 33 What, therefore, [t]belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale [u]in the city of this possession [v]reverts in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. 34 (U)But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.
Of Poor Countrymen
35 ‘(V)Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his [w]means among you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a resident, so that he may live with you. 36 (W)Do not take [x]any kind of interest from him, but [y]fear your God, so that your countryman may live with you. 37 You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food [z]for profit. 38 (X)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and (Y)to be your God.
39 ‘Now (Z)if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. 40 He shall be with you as a hired worker, (AA)as if he were a foreign resident; he shall serve with you up to the year of jubilee. 41 He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, so that he may return to the property of his forefathers. 42 For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale. 43 (AB)You shall not rule over him with [aa]severity, but are to revere your God. 44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. 45 You may also acquire them from the sons of the foreign residents who reside among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. 46 You may also pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. (AC)But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with [ab]severity over one another.
Of Redeeming a Person Who Is Poor
47 ‘Now if the [ac]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 [ad](AD)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, (AE)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; (AF)he shall not rule over him with [ae]severity in your sight. 54 Even if he is not redeemed by [af]these means, (AG)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.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 25:5 Lit growth from spilled kernels
- Leviticus 25:9 Lit signal
- Leviticus 25:10 Or freedom
- Leviticus 25:10 Or when
- Leviticus 25:10 Or when
- Leviticus 25:14 Lit oppress
- Leviticus 25:16 Lit the multitude of
- Leviticus 25:16 Lit the years being few
- Leviticus 25:17 Lit oppress
- Leviticus 25:17 Or revere
- Leviticus 25:18 Lit do My
- Leviticus 25:24 Lit land
- Leviticus 25:25 I.e., male relative to act in his behalf
- Leviticus 25:26 Lit his hand reaches
- Leviticus 25:28 Lit his hand has not found sufficient to
- Leviticus 25:28 Lit go out
- Leviticus 25:30 Lit go out
- Leviticus 25:31 Lit according to
- Leviticus 25:31 Lit go out
- Leviticus 25:33 Lit is from
- Leviticus 25:33 Lit and
- Leviticus 25:33 Lit goes out
- Leviticus 25:35 Lit hand
- Leviticus 25:36 Prob. interest on money and food loans
- Leviticus 25:36 Or revere
- Leviticus 25:37 Lit at interest
- Leviticus 25:43 Or violence
- Leviticus 25:46 Or violence
- Leviticus 25:47 Lit hand...reaches
- Leviticus 25:49 Lit his hand has reached and he
- Leviticus 25:53 Or violence
- Leviticus 25:54 Or these years
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