Leviticus 25:1-55
25 And Jehovah spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai,
2 saying “Tell the sons of Israel, When you come into the country I am giving to you, then land shall keep a sabbath for Jehovah.
3 Six years you shall sow your field and six years prune your vineyard, and gather its crop;
4 but in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath, a sabbath rest, a sabbath of Jehovah’s: you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
5 The self-sown crop of your harvest you shall not reap and of the grapes of your untrimmed vines you shall not make a picking; it shall be a year of sabbath rest for the land.
6 And the land’s sabbath growth shall be for food for you; for yourself and your slave and your hired man and dependent who are living as your tenants,
7 and for your cattle and for the animals in your country, all its crop shall be for food.
8 “And you shall count off seven weeks of years, seven years seven times; the time of your seven weeks of years will come to forty-nine years;
9 and you shall pass along a signal ram-horn in the seventh month on the tenth of the month—on the day of purgation you shall pass along a ram-horn throughout your country—
10 and hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the country for all its inhabitants; you shall have that as ram-horn time, and go back each to his own property, and each come back into his own clan.
11 It, the fiftieth year, shall be ram-horn time for you; you shall not sow, nor reap its self-sown crop, nor make a picking of its untrimmed vines,
12 because it is ram-horn time; you shall hold it sacred; you shall eat its crop out of the field.
13 “In this ram-horn year you shall go back each to his own property.
14 * And when you sell a property to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not be hard on each other.
15 By number of years after the ram-horn you shall buy from your neighbor, and by number of years of crops you shall sell to him.
16 In proportion to the numerousness of the years you shall make the purchase price large, and in proportion to the fewness of the years make the purchase price small, because it is a certain number of crops that he is selling to you;
17 and you shall not be hard on each other, but fear your God, because I am your God Jehovah,
18 and you are to live up to my usages and keep my laws and live up to them and live in the country in security,
19 and the country shall give its fruit, and you shall eat your fill and live in security in it.
20 “And as you will think ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, supposing we do not sow nor gather our crop?’
21 I will ordain my blessing for you in the sixth year and it shall make the crop for the three years.
22 And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat old stock of the crop; till the ninth year, till its crop comes in, you shall eat old stock.
23 “And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, because the land is mine; for you are visitors and tenants with me.
24 And in all the country that you have as your property you shall grant a right of redemption for the land.
25 When your brother is impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest competent representative shall come and redeem what his brother sold.
26 And when a man has no competent representative, and he can afford to spend and can find enough for the redemption of it,
27 he shall calculate the years of his sale and return the surplus to the man he sold it to, and go back to his property.
28 But if he does not find enough to return to him, what he sold shall be in the hands of the one who bought it till the ram-horn year, but it shall pass out of them at the ram-horn and he shall go back to his property.
29 “And when a man sells a dwelling-house in a walled city, the right of redemption for it shall be till the year of its sale runs out; the right of redemption for it shall be for a limited time.
30 And if it is unredeemed till the completion of an entire year, the house in the walled city shall vest in its buyer in perpetuity, generation after generation; it shall not pass out at the ram-horn.
31 But the houses of unwalled villages shall be deemed to pertain to the countryside: there shall be a right of redemption for them and at the ram-horn they shall pass out.
32 And for the Levites’ cities, the houses of the cities of their property, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption.
33 ** And for him of the Levites who does not redeem, his sold house in the city of his property shall pass out at the ram-horn, because the houses of the Levites’ cities are their property among the sons of Israel.
34 And the glebe area of their cities shall not be sold, because they have it as a perpetual possession.
35 * “And when your brother is impoverished and becomes helpless alongside you, you shall take hold to help him; as visitor and dependent he shall be kept alive with you.
36 Do not take interest or bonus from him, but fear your God and let your brother be kept alive with you;
37 you are not to furnish him money at interest nor food for a bonus;
38 I am your God Jehovah who brought you out of Egypt to give you the country of Canaan, to let you have me for your God.
39 * “And when your brother is impoverished alongside you and sells himself to you, you shall not work him like a slave: he shall be like a hired man or a dependent guest with you.
40 He shall serve with you till the ram-horn year,
41 and go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his clan and back to his fathers’ property
42 For they are my property that I brought up out of Egypt; they are not to be sold in slave fashion.
43 You shall not exploit him, but fear your God.
44 * But the slaves you are to have shall be these: out of the nations around you you may buy slaves,
45 and also out of the sons of those who live among you as alien immigrants, any of them you may buy or of their tribe that you have with you that they have had born to them in your country, and they shall become your property,
46 an you shall bequeath them to your children after you to be possessed as perpetual property: them you shall use as slaves, but your brothers the sons of Israel, each other, you shall not exploit.
47 * “And when an immigrant alien among you can afford to spend and your brother is impoverished alongside him and sells himself to an immigrant alien among you or to a scion of immigrant stock,
48 after he is sold there shall be a right of redemption for him; one of his brothers may redeem him,
49 or his uncle or cousin may redeem him or any of his next of kin in his clan may redeem him, or he may become able to afford it and redeem himself.
50 And he shall calculate with his owner from the year of his being sold to him to the ram-horn year, and the money for his sale shall be for a number of years; he shall be with him like a hired man’s time.
51 If there are still many of the years, he shall return a proportionate part of his purchase-money as redemption;
52 * or if few of the years remain till ram-horn year, he shall make his calculation and return his redemption proportionately to his years.
53 He is to be with him like a hired man, by the year; he is not to exploit him under your eyes;
54 and if he is not redeemed in these ways he shall pass out in the ram-horn year, he and his children with him.
55 For the sons of Israel are property of mine; they are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt; I am your God Jehovah.
Footnotes
^ 25:14 Lit. sell a sale
^ 25:33 Unc.; var. who redeems
^ 25:33 Codd.* a sale of house and the city of
^ 25:35 (he shall be kept alive) Unc.
^ 25:39 Or and is sold to you
^ 25:44 Lit. are to have: out of
^ 25:47 Or and is sold
^ 25:52 Codd. calculation; he shall return
