Leviticus Chapter 25
1 Yahveh told Moses at Mount Sinai to tell Israel,
“When you go into the land I’m giving you, the ground will have a rest to Yahveh. 3 Plant your fields, prune your vineyards, harvest your crops for six years. 4 But the seventh year, the ground will rest to Yahveh. Don’t plant your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Don’t store up volunteer growth or gather grapes from untrimmed vines. Let the ground lie feral for a year. 6 You’ll have for food what the ground grows on its own during its sabbath year—yourselves, your male and female slaves, hired hands, and foreigners living with you. 7 Your livestock and the wild animals on your land will have its produce to eat directly.
Lev 25:1-7
8 “Count off 7 weeks of years (49 years). 9 Then blow the ram’s horn all over the country on the tenth day, seventh month, the Day of Atonement. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year as a nation-wide release for its people, a jubilee. You’ll go back to your own property and family. 11 Don’t plant, store up volunteer growth, or pick clean the untrimmed vines. 12 It’s a Year of Jubilee, set aside for you. Eat its produce directly out of the field.
Lev 25:8-12
13 “In the Year of Jubilee, each of you may go back to your own property. 14 If you sell or buy something from one another, don’t wrong one another. 15 Corresponding to the number of years since the last Year of Jubilee, you’ll buy and sell it based on the number of crops. 16 Calculate its price by the number of crops you’re buying or selling. 17 Don’t cheat one another; respect God. I’m Yahveh your God.
Lev 25:13-17
18 “In that way, observe my statutes and obey my regulations so you can live securely on the land. 19 Then the ground will yield its produce so you can eat your fill. 20 But if you wonder what you’re going to eat in the seventh year if you don’t plant or harvest crops, 21 I’ll order my blessing for you in the sixth year so the ground will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 When you’re planting the eighth year, you’ll still be eating from the old crops till the ninth year’s crop comes in.
Lev 25:18-22
23 “You can’t sell land permanently because it’s mine. You’re foreigners that live temporarily with me. 24 So provide for the redemption of every piece of property. 25 If you become so poor you have to sell some of your property, your nearest relative can buy it back. 26 If you don’t have any relatives but accumulate enough, you have the right to buy it back yourself. 27 To reclaim it, calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance. 28 If you don’t accumulate enough to buy it back, it remains with the buyer till the Year of Jubilee and then reverts to you.
Lev 25:23-28
29 “If you sell a house in a walled city, you have a right to buy it back for a full year. 30 If you don’t buy it back within a year, it passes permanently to the buyer; it doesn’t go back to you in the Year of Jubilee. 31 Houses in villages without walls, however, are like property in the open country; you can buy them back, and they revert to you in the Year of Jubilee. 32 In Levitical towns, Levites have an ongoing right to buy back their houses, 33 and their houses revert to them in the Year of Jubilee. Their houses are their possessions among the Israelites, 34 but they can’t sell pastures attached to their towns; they’re permanent possessions. Lev 25:29-34
35 “If citizens become poor, sustain them like foreigners or temporary residents so they can keep living with you. 36 Don’t charge them interest; respect God. 37 Don’t lend them your silver or food at interest. 38 I’m Yahveh your God that brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and be your God.
Lev 25:35-38
39 “If citizens become so poor that they sell themselves to you, don’t subject them to slavery. 40 Till the Year of Jubilee, treat them like hired hands or foreigners with you. 41 Then they and their offspring will go back to their family and ancestors’ property. 42 They’re my servants that I brought out of Egypt. Don’t sell them in the slave trade. 43 Don’t rule them harshly; respect me. 44 You can acquire male and female slaves from pagan nations,
45 from foreigners living among you;
you can acquire possessions from the families they produce in your country; 46 you can will them to your heirs and
use them as permanent slaves.
But with Israelites, don’t mistreat one another that way.
Lev 25:39-46
47 “If foreigners’ or temporary residents’ means become sufficient and any fellow citizens become so poor as to sell themselves to a foreigner or descendant living among you, 48-49 they’ll have redemption rights. A brother, uncle, nephew, or other blood relative has a right to buy them back. If they prosper, they can redeem themselves. 50 Then they and their purchaser will calculate from the year they sold yourselves up to the Year of jubilee. The price of their sale will correspond to that number of years. Their case will be like the time of a hired hand. 51 If many years still remain for their redemption, they’ll refund their purchase price corresponding to their remaining years. 52 If few years remain till the Year of Jubilee, they’ll calculate with their purchaser. In proportion to their years, they’ll refund the amount for their redemption. 53 They’ll be with the purchaser like someone hired year by year, not like slaves. 54 If you’re not bought back, you and your offspring will still go back free in the Year of Jubilee, 55 because Israelites are my servants that I brought out of Egypt. I’m Yahveh your God.” Lev 25:47-55