Leviticus 25

Modern

Literal

The Seventh Year

¹Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

¹And YHWH spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD.

²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you come into the land that I am giving to you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to YHWH.

³For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

³Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit.

⁴But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD.

You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.

⁴And in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath to YHWH. Your field you shall not sow, and your vineyard you shall not prune.

⁵You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest.

⁵What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your untended vine you shall not gather. It is a year of complete rest for the land.

⁶Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you,

⁶And the Sabbath of the land to you shall be food for you, and for your manservant, and for your maidservant, and for your hireling, and for your sojourner sojourning with you,

⁷and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.

⁷and for your livestock, and for the beast that is in your land. All its produce shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

⁸And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.

⁸And you shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years—seven years seven times—and the days of seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you nine and forty years.

⁹Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.

⁹And the shofar of the Jubilee you shall cause to sound in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, in the Day of the Atonements. You shall make the shofar to sound throughout all your land.

¹⁰So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.

¹⁰And you shall consecrate the year, the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land to all its dwellers. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

¹¹The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines.

¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a year of Jubilee to you. You shall not sow, nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather of your untended vine.

¹²For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.

¹²For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field.

Return of Property

¹³In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

¹³In the Year of this Jubilee each of you shall return to his possession.

¹⁴If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

¹⁴And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from the hand of your neighbor, you shall not oppress one another.

¹⁵You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the last Jubilee; he is to sell to you according to the number of harvest years remaining.

¹⁵According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you.

¹⁶You shall increase the price in proportion to a greater number of years, or decrease it in proportion to a lesser number of years; for he is selling you a given number of harvests.

¹⁶According to the multitude of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for he is selling to you a number of crops.

¹⁷Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

¹⁷And you shall not oppress one another, and you shall fear your God. For I am YHWH your God.

The Blessing of Obedience

¹⁸You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.

¹⁸And you shall observe My statutes, and keep My ordinances and perform them, and you will dwell in the land in safety.

¹⁹Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

¹⁹And the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in safety there.

²⁰Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’

²⁰Now you may say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?’

²¹But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.

²¹And I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth enough produce for three years.

²²While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.

²²And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat of the old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

The Law of Redemption

²³The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

²³And the land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

²⁴Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁴And in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land.

²⁵If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.

²⁵If one of your brothers becomes poor and he has sold some of his possession, then the redeemer to him, if he comes to redeem it, he may redeem what his brother sold.

²⁶Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,

²⁶And if the man, there is unto him no one to redeem it, and he has found his own hand has attained sufficiency for its redemption,

²⁷he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property.

²⁷then let him count the years of its sale and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession.

²⁸But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.

²⁸But if his hand has not found sufficiency to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of the Jubilee. And it shall be released in the Jubilee, and he shall return to his possession.

²⁹If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains his right of redemption until a full year after its sale; during that year it may be redeemed.

²⁹And if a man sells a dwelling-house in a walled city, then it shall be that he may redeem it within the completion of a year from its selling; during that year it may be redeemed.

³⁰If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its buyer and his descendants. It is not to be released in the Jubilee.

³⁰But if it is not redeemed within the filling for it of a full year, the house that is within that walled city, then it shall belong forever to the buyer of it throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the Jubilee.

³¹But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

³¹And the houses of the villages that have no wall around them, as the fields of the country, shall be counted redeemed; and they may be unto it; they shall be released in the Jubilee.

³²As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.

³²And as for the cities of the Levites, the houses the Levites shall be a redemption of perpetuity in the cities of their possession.

³³So whatever belongs to the Levites may be redeemed—a house sold in a city they possess—and must be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites.

³³And as to him who redeems from the Levites, then both the sale of a house and the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel.

³⁴But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.

³⁴And the field of the pastureland of their cities may not be sold, for it is an everlasting possession to them.

Redemption of the Poor

³⁵Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.

³⁵And if one of your brothers among you becomes poor and his hand has failed, then you shall help him like a sojourner or a stranger, and he may live with you.

³⁶Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

³⁶And you shall not take usury from him or interest; you shall fear your God, that your brother may live with you.

³⁷You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.

³⁷You shall lend your silver to him, not for usury at a profit, nor sell him your food.

³⁸I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁸I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give to you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

Redemption of Bondmen

³⁹If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

³⁹And if one of your brothers among you becomes poor, and he sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.

⁴⁰Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

⁴⁰He shall be as a hireling and a sojourner with you; he shall serve you until the Year of the Jubilee.

⁴¹Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.

⁴¹And he shall depart from you, and his children with him, and he shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers he shall return.

⁴²Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

⁴²For they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.

⁴³You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

⁴³You shall not rule over him with rigor, and you shall fear your God.

⁴⁴Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.

⁴⁴And your manservant and your maidservant whom you may have are from the nations that are around you; from them you may buy a manservant and maidservant.

⁴⁵You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land. These may become your property.

⁴⁵Moreover, the sons of the sojourners who dwell among you, these you may buy, and their clans who are with you that they beget in your land; and they shall be unto you for a possession.

⁴⁶You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.

⁴⁶And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them as a possession forever; in them shall be your slaves, and regarding your brothers, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with rigor one over another.

Redemption of Servants

⁴⁷If a foreigner residing among you prospers, but your countryman dwelling near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner or to a member of his clan,

⁴⁷And if a sojourner or stranger among you becomes rich, and one of your brothers by him becomes poor and sells himself to the sojourner or stranger among you, or to a member of the family of a sojourner,

⁴⁸he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:

⁴⁸after he is sold, there is unto him the right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him,

⁴⁹either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

⁴⁹or his uncle or a son of his uncle may redeem him, or someone from a close relative of his flesh from his family may redeem him, or if his own hand has attained, then he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.

⁵⁰And he shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he was sold to him, until the Year of the Jubilee. And the price of his release shall be according to the number of years; it is according to the time of a hireling for him.

⁵¹If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.

⁵¹If yet there are many years according to them, he shall repay the price of his redemption from the silver with which he was bought.

⁵²If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to calculate and pay his redemption according to his remaining years.

⁵²And if but a few years remain until the Year of the Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him according to his years; he shall repay him the price of his redemption.

⁵³He shall be treated like a man hired from year to year, but a foreign owner must not rule over him harshly in your sight.

⁵³As a hireling year by year he shall be with him. He shall not rule over him with rigor in your eyes.

⁵⁴Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.

⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of the Jubilee—he and his children with him.

⁵⁵For the Israelites are My servants. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

⁵⁵For the sons of Israel are servants to Me. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your God.