Leviticus 25
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain,
And Jehovah spoke to Moses at mount Sinai, saying,
2 “Tell the Israelis [that I, Yahweh, say this]: When you enter the land that I am about to give you, every seventh year you must honor me by [not planting any seeds. You will be] allowing the ground to rest.
Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to Jehovah.
3 For six years you are to plant seeds in your fields and prune your grapevines and harvest the crops.
Six years thou shall sow thy field, and six years thou shall prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits of it,
4 But the seventh/next year you must [dedicate] to me, and allow your fields to rest. Do not plant seeds in your fields or prune your grapevines [during that year].
but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Thou shall neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 Do not reap [the grain] that grows in your fields without having been planted, or harvest the grapes that grow [without the vines being pruned]; you must allow the land to rest for that one year.
That which grows of itself of thy harvest thou shall not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
6 But you are permitted to eat whatever crops grow by themselves during that year without having been planted. You and your male and female servants, and workers whom you have hired, and people who are living among you temporarily are permitted to eat it.
And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you: for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger, who sojourns with thee.
7 Also, [during that year] your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat it.’
And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, all the increase of it shall be for food.
8 ‘Also, after every 49 years has ended, you must do this: (On the tenth day of the seventh month/At the end of September) [of the next/50th year], blow trumpets throughout the country, to declare that it will be a day on which you request that I forgive you for the sins that you have committed.
And thou shall number seven sabbaths of years to thee, seven times seven years, and there shall be to thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
Then thou shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. In the day of atonement ye shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.
10 Set apart that year, and proclaim that throughout the country, it will be a year of restoring the land and freeing people: All the people [who sold their property] will receive back the property that they previously owned, and slaves must be (freed/allowed to return to [their property and] their families).
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it. It shall be a jubilee to you, and ye shall return every man to his possession, and ye shall return every man to his family.
11 That year will be a Year of Celebration; [during that year] do not plant anything, and do not harvest [in the usual way] the grain/wheat that grows without having been planted, or the grapes that grow without the vines being pruned.
That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. Ye shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather in it of the undressed vines.
12 It will be a Year of Celebration, so eat [only] what grows in the fields (by itself/without any work being done to produce anything).
For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. Ye shall eat the increase of it out of the field.
13 ‘In that Year of Celebration, everyone must return to their own property.
In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man to his possession.
14 ‘If you sell some of your land to a fellow Israeli or if you buy some land from one of them, you must treat that person fairly:
And if thou sell anything to thy neighbor, or buy of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not wrong each other.
15 If you buy land, the price that you will pay will depend on the number of years there will be until the next Year of Celebration. If someone sells land to you, he will charge a price that is determined by the number of years until the next Year of Celebration.
According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shall buy of thy neighbor, and according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to thee.
16 If there will be many years before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher; if there will be only a few years until the next Year of Celebration, the price will be lower. [You could say that] what he is really selling you is the number of crops [which you can harvest before the next Year of Celebration].
According to the multitude of the years thou shall increase the price of it, and according to the fewness of the years thou shall diminish the price of it, for the number of the crops he sells to thee.
17 Do not cheat each other; instead, revere me. I, Yahweh your God, [am the one who am commanding this].
And ye shall not wrong each other, but thou shall fear thy God, for I am Jehovah your God.
18 ‘Obey all my laws [DOU] carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country [DOU].
Therefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
19 And crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat.
And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell in safety in it.
20 But you may ask, “If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?”
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase,
21 [My answer is that] I will bless you very much during the sixth/previous year, with the result that during that year there will be enough crops to provide food for you for three years!
then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
22 Then, after you plant seed during the eighth/next year [and wait for the crops to grow], you will eat the food grown in the sixth year, and continue to eat it until more food is harvested in the ninth year!
And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old storage, until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, ye shall eat the old storage.
23 ‘You must not sell any of your land to belong to someone else permanently, because the land [is not yours, it]; is really mine, and you are only living on it temporarily and (farming/taking care of) it for me.
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
24 Throughout the country that you will possess, you must remember that if someone sells some of his land to you, he is permitted to buy it back from you [if he wants to].
And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
25 ‘So, if one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells some of his property [to obtain some money], the person who is most closely related to him is permitted to come and buy that land for him.
If thy brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possession, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold.
26 However, if a man has no one to buy the land for him, and he himself prospers again and saves enough money to buy that land back,
And if a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes rich and finds sufficient to redeem it,
27 he must calculate how many years there will be until the next Year of Celebration. Then he must pay to the man who bought the land the money that he would have earned by continuing to grow crops on that land for those years.
then let him reckon the years of the sale of it, and restore the excess to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his possession.
28 But if the original owner does not have any money to buy the land that he sold, it will continue to belong to the man who bought it, until the next Year of Celebration. In that year it must be returned to its original owner, and he will be able to live on it again.
But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then that which he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee. And in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.
29 ‘If someone who lives in a city that has a wall around it sells a house there, during the next year he will be permitted to buy it from the man who bought it.
And if a man sells a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
30 If he does not buy it during that year, it will belong permanently to the man who bought it and to his descendants. It must not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Celebration.
And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not go out in the jubilee.
31 But houses that are in villages that do not have walls around them are considered to be as though they are in a field. So if someone sells one of those houses, he is permitted to buy it back at any time. And [if he does not buy it], it must be returned to him in the Year of Celebration.
But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
32 ‘If any descendants of Levi sell their houses in the towns in which they live, they are permitted to buy them back at any time.
Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
33 And because the houses in their towns are on land that [was given to them by] other Israelis, that land will become theirs again in the Year of Celebration [if they do not buy it back before then].
And if a man purchases from the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee. For the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.
34 But the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently/forever.
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
35 ‘If one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and is unable to buy what he needs [IDM], others of you must help him like you would help a foreigner who is living among you [DOU] temporarily.
And if thy brother becomes poor, and his hand fails with thee, then thou shall uphold him; he shall live with thee as a stranger and a sojourner.
36 [If you lend money to him], do not charge any kind of interest [DOU]. Instead, [show by what you do that you] revere me, your God, and help that man, in order that he will be able to continue to live among you.
Take thou no interest from him or increase, but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee.
37 If you lend him money, do not charge interest; and if you sell food to him, [charge him only what you paid for it]; do not get a profit from it.
Thou shall not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy food for profit.
38 [Do not forget that] I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God and to give you the land of Canaan, [and I did not charge you for doing that].
I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 ‘If one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave.
And if thy brother becomes poor with thee, and sells himself to thee, thou shall not impose upon him servile labor.
40 Treat him like you treat workers that you hire or like someone who is living on your land temporarily. But he must work for you [only] until the Year of Celebration.
He shall be with thee as a hired servant, and as a sojourner. He shall serve with thee to the year of jubilee.
41 During that year, you must free him, and he will go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned.
Then he shall go out from thee, he and his sons with him, and shall return to his own family. And he shall return to the possession of his fathers.
42 [It is as though] you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I [freed from being slaves] in Egypt. So none of you should be sold to become slaves.
For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as bondmen.
43 And do not treat the Israelis whom you buy cruelly; instead, revere me, your God.
Thou shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear thy God.
44 ‘If you want to have slaves, you are permitted to buy them from nearby countries.
And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou shall have, from the nations that are round about you, ye shall buy bondmen and bondmaids from them.
45 You are also permitted to buy some of the foreigners who are living among you, and members of their clans that were born in your country. Then you will own them.
Moreover of the sons of the strangers who sojourn among you, ye shall buy from them, and from their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they shall be your possession.
46 They will be your slaves for the remaining years of your life, and after you die, it is permitted for your children to own them. But you must not act in brutal ways toward your fellow Israelis.
And ye shall make them an inheritance for your sons after you, to hold for a possession. Ye shall take your permanent bondmen from them, but over your brothers the sons of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.
47 ‘If a foreigner who is living among you [DOU] becomes rich, and if one of your fellow Israelis becomes poor and sells himself to that foreigner or to a member of his clan/family,
And if a stranger or sojourner with thee becomes rich, and thy brother becomes poor beside him, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family,
48 it is permitted for someone to pay for him to be freed. It is permitted for one of his relatives to pay for him to be released:
he may be redeemed after he is sold. One of his brothers may redeem him.
49 An uncle or a cousin or another relative in his clan may pay for him to be released. Or, if he prospers [and gets enough money], he is permitted to pay for his own release.
Or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him. Or any who is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him. Or if he becomes rich, he may redeem himself.
50 The man who wants to pay for his own release must count the number of years until the next Year of Celebration. The price he pays to the man who bought him will depend on the pay that would be given to a hired worker for that number of years.
And he shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the year of jubilee. And the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years. He shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant.
51 If there are a lot of years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay for his release a larger amount of the money.
If there be yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52 If there are only a few years that remain until the Year of Celebration, he must pay a smaller amount to be released.
And if there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him. He shall give back the price of his redemption according to his years.
53 During the years that he is working for the man who bought him, the man who bought him must treat him like he would treat a hired worker, and all of you must make sure that his owner does not treat him cruelly.
He shall be with him as a servant hired year by year. He shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.
54 ‘And even if a fellow Israeli who has sold himself to a rich man is not able to pay for himself to be freed by any of these ways, he and his children must be freed in the Year of Celebration,
And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his sons with him.
55 because [it is as though] you Israelis are my slaves/servants, whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from [being slaves in] Egypt.’”
For the sons of Israel are servants to me. They are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.
