Leviticus 25:1-22 ▼

1 The LORD told Moses on Mount Sinai,

2 |Tell the Israelis that when you enter the land that I'm about to give you, you are to let the land observe a Sabbath to the LORD.

3 For six years you may plant your fields, and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce.

4 But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of rest for the land—a Sabbath for the LORD. You are not to plant your field or prune your vineyard.

5 You are not to gather what grows from the spilled kernels of your crops. You are not to pick the grapes of your untrimmed vines. Let it be a year of Sabbath for the land.

6 You may take the Sabbath produce of the land for your food—you, your male and maid servants, your hired laborers, and the resident alien with you.

7 The cattle and the wild animals in your land—everything it produces—are for your food.

8 |Count for yourselves seven years of Sabbaths—seven times seven years. This set of seven weeks of years total 49 years for you.

9 Sound a horn on the tenth day of the seventh month of this fiftieth year. Likewise, on the Day of Atonement, sound the horn throughout your land.

10 Set aside and consecrate the fiftieth year to declare liberty throughout the land for all of its inhabitants. It is to be a jubilee for you. Every person is to return to his own land that he has inherited. Likewise, every person is to return to his tribe.

11 The fiftieth year is to be a year of jubilee for you. You are not to sow or harvest the spilled kernels that grow of themselves or pick grapes from the untrimmed vines

12 because it's the jubilee—it's sacred for you. But you may eat its produce from the field.

13 |During this year of jubilee, each person is to return to his own land that he has inherited.

14 So if you had sold property to a neighbor or had acquired land from your neighbor, you are not to cheat one another.

15 According to the number of years after the jubilee, you may buy from your neighbor. And according to the number of years with crops, he may sell to you.

16 If the number of years after the jubilee is more, increase the selling price. If the number of years after the jubilee is few, decrease its selling price, because he's selling to you according to the potential production volume of the land.

17 No one is to cheat his neighbor. Instead, you are to fear your God, because I am the LORD your God.

18 |Observe my statutes and keep my ordinances. Do them so that you may live securely in the land.

19 Then the land will yield its fruit and you'll eat to your satisfaction and live securely.

20 |Now if you ask, 'What will we eat during the seventh year? After all, we may not plant or even gather our produce!'

21 I'll command my blessing on you during the sixth year so that it will yield produce for three years!

22 That way, you are to sow in the eighth year, eating the produce from the old harvest. Until the ninth year when its produce comes in, you'll eat from the old harvest.|