Leviticus 25:1-41 ▼

1 AND the LORD spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying,

2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you for an inheritance, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the LORD.

3 Six years you shall sow your fields and six years you shall prune your vineyards and six years you shall gather in your produce;

4 But the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, and it shall be to you a sabbath for the LORD; you shall neither sow your fields nor prune your vineyards.

5 That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your undressed vine; for it is the year of rest to the land.

6 And the sabbath of the land shall be food for you, for yourself and for your servants and for your maids and for your hired laborers and for the stranger that sojourns with you

7 And for your cattle and for the beasts that are in your land shall all its increase be for food to you.

8 And you shall count seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.

9 Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement shall you sound the trumpet throughout all your land.

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

11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vine.

12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat the produce out of the field.

13 In this year of jubilee you shall return every man to his own possession.

14 And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not defraud one another:

15 According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the produce he shall sell to you;

16 In proportion to the multitude of years you shall increase the price thereof, and in proportion to the fewness of years you shall decrease the price of it; for according to the number of the years of produce does he sell to you.

17 You shall not therefore defraud one another; but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

18 Wherefore you shall do my commandments and keep my judgments and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

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

20 And if you shall say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? For we shall not sow, nor gather in the produce thereof;

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

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

23 Surely the land shall not be sold outright; for the land is mine; you are strangers and sojourners with me.

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

25 If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his possession, then his nearest kin shall come and redeem that which his brother has sold.

26 And if the man has no one to redeem it, and himself has sufficient means and is able to redeem it,

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

28 But if he cannot afford to pay him back, then that which he sold shall remain secure in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

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

30 And if it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be confirmed for ever to him who bought it throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee.

31 But the houses of the villages which have no walls round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.

32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses which are in the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have the right to redeem for ever.

33 And if a man purchases of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall be released in the year of jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possessions among the children of Israel.

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

35 And if your brother becomes poor and stretches out his hand for help, you shall not look upon him as a stranger or a sojourner; he shall live with you.

36 You shall not take a discount of him or usury; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.

37 You shall not lend him your money with a discount nor give him your food with usury.

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

39 And if your brother becomes poor and be sold to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant;

40 But as a hired laborer, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the year of jubilee;

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