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Leviticus 25:13-28
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

13 “In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.(A) 14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another.(B) 15 When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years until the Jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years.(C) 16 If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price, for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17 You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.(D)

18 “You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely.(E) 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. 20 Should you ask, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’(F) 21 I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years. 22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.(G) 23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.(H) 24 Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.

25 “If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold.(I) 26 If the person has no one to redeem it but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so, 27 the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned.(J) 28 But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of Jubilee; in the Jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.(K)

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Leviticus 25:13-28
New English Translation

Release of Landed Property

13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee you must each return[a] to your property. 14 If you make a sale[b] to your fellow citizen[c] or buy[d] from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother.[e] 15 You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since[f] the last Jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left.[g] 16 The more years there are,[h] the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are,[i] the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of[j] produce. 17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen,[k] but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God. 18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them[l] so that you may live securely in the land.[m]

19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied,[n] and you may live securely in the land. 20 If you say, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?” 21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield[o] the produce[p] for three years, 22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce[q]—old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce,[r] you may eat old produce. 23 The land must not be sold without reclaim[s] because the land belongs to me, for you are foreign residents, temporary settlers, with me.[t] 24 In all your landed property[u] you must provide for the right of redemption of the land.[v]

25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold.[w] 26 If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers[x] and gains enough for its redemption,[y] 27 he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold,[z] refund the balance[aa] to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property. 28 If he has not prospered enough to refund[ab] a balance to him, then what he sold[ac] will belong to[ad] the one who bought it until the Jubilee year, but it must revert[ae] in the Jubilee and the original owner[af] may return to his property.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 25:13 tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”
  2. Leviticus 25:14 tn Heb “sell a sale.”
  3. Leviticus 25:14 tn Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”
  4. Leviticus 25:14 tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute קָנֹה (qanoh, “buying”) substitutes for the finite verb here in sequence with the previous finite verb “sell” at the beginning of the verse (see GKC 345 §113.z).
  5. Leviticus 25:14 tn Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.
  6. Leviticus 25:15 tn Heb “in the number of years after.”
  7. Leviticus 25:15 tn The words “that are left” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.sn The purchaser is actually buying only the crops that the land will produce until the next Jubilee, since the land will revert to the original owner at that time. The purchaser, therefore, is not actually buying the land itself.
  8. Leviticus 25:16 tn Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”
  9. Leviticus 25:16 tn Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”
  10. Leviticus 25:16 tn Heb “a number of produce”; the words “years of” are implied. As an alternative this could be translated “a number of harvests” (cf. NRSV, NLT).
  11. Leviticus 25:17 tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”
  12. Leviticus 25:18 tn Heb “And you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8, etc.).
  13. Leviticus 25:18 tn Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”
  14. Leviticus 25:19 tn Heb “eat to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV “ye shall eat your fill.”
  15. Leviticus 25:21 tn Heb “and it [i.e., the land] shall make the produce.” The Hebrew term וְעָשָׂת (veʿasat, “and it shall make”) is probably an older third feminine singular form of the verb (GKC 210 §75.m). Smr has the normal form.
  16. Leviticus 25:21 tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”
  17. Leviticus 25:22 tn Heb “the produce,” referring to “the produce” of the sixth year of v. 21. The words “sixth year” are supplied for clarity.
  18. Leviticus 25:22 tn Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”
  19. Leviticus 25:23 tn The term rendered “without reclaim” means that the land has been bought for the full price and is, therefore, not subject to reclaim under any circumstances. This was not to be done with land in ancient Israel (contrast the final full sale of houses in v. 30; see the evidence cited in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 174).
  20. Leviticus 25:23 tn The Hebrew terms ger (גֵּר; “resident foreigner”) and toshav (תּוֹשָׁב; “resident/dweller”) have similar meaning. The toshav was less integrated into Israelite society, had less rights, and had not fully committed to the religion of Israel. But in this context the terms are used simply to emphasize that Israel would be a guest on God’s land. They were attached to the Lord’s household. They did not own the land.sn Abraham refers to himself by these terms in Gen 23:4. Ps 39:12 and 1 Chron 29:15 take up this language from Lev 25:23.
  21. Leviticus 25:24 tn Heb “And in all the land of your property.”
  22. Leviticus 25:24 tn Heb “right of redemption you shall give to the land”; NAB “you must permit the land to be redeemed.”
  23. Leviticus 25:25 tn Heb “the sale of his brother.”
  24. Leviticus 25:26 tn Heb “and his hand reaches.”
  25. Leviticus 25:26 tn Heb “and he finds as sufficiency of its redemption.”
  26. Leviticus 25:27 tn Heb “and he shall calculate its years of sale.”
  27. Leviticus 25:27 tn Heb “and return the excess.”
  28. Leviticus 25:28 tn Heb “And if his hand has not found sufficiency of returning.” Although some versions take this to mean that he has not made enough to regain the land (e.g., NASB, NRSV; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176), the combination of terms in Hebrew corresponds to the portion of v. 27 that refers specifically to refunding the money (cf. v. 27; see NIV and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 315).
  29. Leviticus 25:28 tn Heb “his sale.”
  30. Leviticus 25:28 tn Heb “will be in the hand of.” This refers to the temporary control of the one who purchased its produce until the next Year of Jubilee, at which time it would revert to the original owner.
  31. Leviticus 25:28 tn Heb “it shall go out” (so KJV, ASV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).
  32. Leviticus 25:28 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the original owner of the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
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