Leviticus 25

¹And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.

³Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

⁴But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

⁵That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

⁶And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

⁷And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

⁸And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

⁹Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

¹⁰And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

¹¹A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

¹²For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

¹³In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

¹⁴And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

¹⁵According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:

¹⁶According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

¹⁷Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

¹⁹And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

²⁰And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

²¹Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

²²And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

²³The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

²⁴And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

²⁵If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

²⁶And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

²⁷Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.

²⁸But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

²⁹And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.

³⁰And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.

³¹But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.

³²Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

³³And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

³⁴But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

³⁵And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

³⁶Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

³⁷Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

³⁸I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

³⁹And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

⁴⁰But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:

⁴¹And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

⁴²For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

⁴³Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

⁴⁴Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

⁴⁵Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

⁴⁶And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.

⁴⁷And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family:

⁴⁸After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

⁴⁹Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.

⁵¹If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

⁵²And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.

⁵³And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

⁵⁴And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him.

⁵⁵For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 25

¹And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

²Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land which I will give you, let the land keep a Sabbath to the Lord.

³For six years put seed into your land, and for six years give care to your vines and get in the produce of them;

⁴But let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or have your vines cut.

⁵That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off; let it be a year of rest for the land.

⁶And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and your man-servant and your woman-servant and those working for payment, and for those of another country who are living among you;

⁷And for your cattle and the beasts on the land; all the natural increase of the land will be for food.

⁸And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you, seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of years, that is forty-nine years;

⁹Then let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin let the horn be sounded through all your land.

¹⁰And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee, and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family.

¹¹Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for vines.

¹²For it is the Jubilee, and it is holy to you; your food will be the natural increase of the field.

¹³In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his heritage.

¹⁴And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another.

¹⁵Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and the number of times the earth has given her produce.

¹⁶If the number of years is great, the price will be increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years which the man is giving you.

¹⁷And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you will be safe in your land.

¹⁹And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food in full measure and be safe in the land.

²⁰And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase

²¹Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will give fruit enough for three years.

²²And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year is ready.

²³No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time.

²⁴Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have the right of getting it back.

²⁵If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get back that which his brother has given up.

²⁶And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back;

²⁷Then let him take into account the years from the time when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the years to him who took it, and so get back his property.

²⁸But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then it will be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee; and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will have his property again.

²⁹And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money, he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after he has given it up.

³⁰And if he does not get it back by the end of the year, then the house in the town will become the property of him who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever; it will not go from him in the year of Jubilee.

³¹But houses in small unwalled towns will be the same as property in the country; they may be got back, and they will go back to their owners in the year of Jubilee.

³²But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got back by the Levites at any time.

³³And if a Levite does not give money to get back his property, his house in the town which was exchanged for money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among the children of Israel.

³⁴But the land on the outskirts of their towns may not be exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever.

³⁵And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping him as you would a man from another country who is living among you.

³⁶Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living among you.

³⁷Do not take interest on the money which you let him have or on the food which you give him.

³⁸I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your God.

³⁹And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property;

⁴⁰But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee;

⁴¹Then he will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers.

⁴²For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another.

⁴³Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you.

⁴⁴But you may get servants as property from among the nations round about; from them you may take men-servants and women-servants.

⁴⁵And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be your property.

⁴⁶And they will be your children's heritage after you, to keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever; but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the children of Israel.

⁴⁷And if one from another nation living among you gets wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to one of his family;

⁴⁸After he has given himself he has the right to be made free, for a price, by one of his brothers,

⁴⁹Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother, or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make himself free.

⁵⁰And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant.

⁵¹If there is still a long time, he will give back, on account of it, a part of the price which was given for him.

⁵²And if there is only a short time, he will take account of it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he will give back the price of making him free.

⁵³And he will be with him as a servant working for payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him before your eyes.

⁵⁴And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

⁵⁵For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I took out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.