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13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.

14 “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.

18 “‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;” 21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years. 22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old store until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.

23 “‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. 24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

25 “‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. 28 But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.

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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[a] 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.[b] 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.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 25:25 Or next of kin; traditionally redeemer
  2. Leviticus 25:27 Or they will go back to their family property; also in 25:28.