25 2 The Sabbath of the seventh year. 8 The Jubilee in the fiftieth year. 14 Not to oppress their brethren. 23 The sale and redeeming of lands, houses and persons.
1 And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye shall come into the land which I give you, the (A)land shall [a]keep Sabbath unto the Lord.
3 [b]Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt cut thy vineyard, and gather the fruit thereof.
4 But the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land: it shall be the Lord’s Sabbath: thou shalt neither sow thy field nor cut thy vineyard.
5 That which groweth of its [c]own accord of thy harvest, thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes that thou hast left [d]unlabored: for it shall be a year of rest unto the land.
6 And the [e]rest of the land shall be meat for you, even for thee and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee:
7 And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 ¶ Also thou shalt number seven [f]Sabbaths of years unto thee, even seven times seven years: and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years will be unto thee nine and forty years.
9 [g]Then thou shalt cause to blow the trumpet of the Jubilee in the tenth day of the seventh month: even in the day of the reconciliation shall ye make the trumpet blow throughout all your land.
10 And ye shall hallow that year, even the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land to all the [h]inhabitants thereof: it shall be the Jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his [i]possession, and every man shall return unto his family.
11 This fiftieth year shall be a year of Jubilee unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself, neither gather the grapes thereof that are left unlabored.
12 For it is the Jubilee, it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat of the increase thereof out of the field.
13 In the year of this Jubilee, ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14 And when thou sellest ought to thy neighbor, or buyest at thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall [j]not oppress one another.
15 But according to the number of [k]years after the Jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbor: also according to the number of the years of the revenues, he shall sell unto thee.
16 According to the multitude of years, thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt abate the price of it: for the number of [l]fruits doth he sell unto thee.
17 Oppress not ye therefore any man his neighbor, but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.
18 ¶ Wherefore ye shall obey mine ordinances, and keep my laws, and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land [m]in safety.
19 And the land shall give her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year, for we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase?
21 I will [n]send my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the old fruit until the ninth year: until the fruit thereof come ye shall eat the old.
23 ¶ Also the land shall not be sold to be [o]cut off from the family: for the land is mine, and ye be but strangers and sojourners with me.
24 Therefore in all the land of your possession ye shall [p]grant a redemption of the land.
25 ¶ If thy brother be impoverished, and sell his possession, then his redeemer shall come, even his near kinsman, and buy out that, which his [q]brother sold.
26 And if he have no redeemer, but [r]hath gotten and found to buy it out,
27 Then shall he [s]count the years of his sale, and restore the overplus to the man, to whom he sold it: so shall he return to his possession.
28 But if he cannot get sufficient to restore to him, then that which is sold, shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it, until the year of the Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall come [t]out, and he shall return unto his possession.
29 Likewise if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, he may buy it out again within a whole year after it is sold: within a year may he buy it out.
30 But if it be not bought out within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city, shall be stablished, [u]as cut off from the family, to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the Jubilee.
31 But the houses of villages which have no walls round about them, shall be esteemed as the field of the country: they may be bought out again, and shall [v]go out in the Jubilee.
32 Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem [w]at all seasons.
33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, the house that was sold, and the city of their possession shall go out in the Jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34 But the field of the [x]suburbs of their cities shall not be sold: for it is their perpetual possession.
35 ¶ Moreover, if thy brother be impoverished, and [y]fallen in decay with thee, thou shalt relieve him, and as a stranger and sojourner, so shall he live with thee.
36 (B)Thou shalt take no usury of him, nor vantage, but thou shalt fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee.
37 Thou shalt not give him thy money to usury, nor lend him thy vittles for increase.
38 I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 ¶ (C)If thy brother also that dwelleth by thee be impoverished, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant,
40 But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee: he shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee.
41 Then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return:
42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: they shall not [z]be sold as bondmen are sold.
43 (D)Thou shalt not rule over him cruelly, but shalt fear thy God.
44 Thy bond servant also, and thy bondmaid, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you: of them shall ye buy servants and maids.
45 And moreover, of the children of the strangers that are sojourners among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you which they begat in your land: these shall be your [aa]possession.
46 So ye shall take them, as inheritance for your children after you to possess them by inheritance, ye shall use their labors forever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with cruelty.
47 ¶ If a sojourner or a stranger dwelling by thee [ab]get riches, and thy brother by him be impoverished, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner dwelling by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family,
48 After that he is sold, he may be bought out: one of his brethren may buy him out.
49 Or his uncle, or his uncle’s son may buy him out, or any of the kindred of his flesh among his family, may redeem him: either if he can [ac]get so much, he may buy himself out.
50 Then he shall reckon with his buyer from the year that he was sold to him, unto the year of Jubilee: and the money of his sale shall be according to the number of [ad]years: according to the time of an hired servant shall he be with him.
51 If there be many years behind, according to them shall he give again for his deliverance, of the money that he was bought for.
52 If there remain but few years unto the year of Jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according to his years give again for his redemption.
53 He shall be with him year by year as an hired servant: he shall not rule cruelly over him in thy [ae]sight.
54 And if he be not redeemed thus, he shall go out in the year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him.
55 For unto me the children of Israel are servants, they are my servants whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 25:2 Hebrew, shall rest a rest.
- Leviticus 25:3 The Jews began the count of this year in September: for then all the fruits were gathered.
- Leviticus 25:5 By reason of the corn that fell out of the ears the year past.
- Leviticus 25:5 Or, which thou hast separated from thyself, and consecrated to God for the poor.
- Leviticus 25:6 That which the land bringeth forth in her rest.
- Leviticus 25:8 Or, weeks.
- Leviticus 25:9 In the beginning of the 50th year was the Jubilee, so called, because the joyful tidings of liberty [were] publicly proclaimed by the sound of a cornet.
- Leviticus 25:10 Which were in bondage.
- Leviticus 25:10 Because the tribes should neither have their possessions or families diminished nor confounded.
- Leviticus 25:14 By deceit, or otherwise.
- Leviticus 25:15 If the Jubilee to come be near, thou shalt sell better cheap: if it be far off, dearer.
- Leviticus 25:16 And not the full possession of the land.
- Leviticus 25:18 Or, boldly without fear.
- Leviticus 25:21 Hebrew, I will command.
- Leviticus 25:23 It could not be sold forever, but must return to the family in the Jubilee.
- Leviticus 25:24 Ye shall sell it on condition that it may be redeemed.
- Leviticus 25:25 Or, kinsman.
- Leviticus 25:26 Hebrew, his hand hath gotten.
- Leviticus 25:27 Abating the money of the years past, and paying for the rest of the years to come.
- Leviticus 25:28 From his hand that bought it.
- Leviticus 25:30 That is, forever, read verse 23.
- Leviticus 25:31 Or, return.
- Leviticus 25:32 Hebrew, forever.
- Leviticus 25:34 Where the Levites kept their cattle.
- Leviticus 25:35 In Hebrew it is, if his hand shake: meaning, if he stretch forth his hand for help as one in misery.
- Leviticus 25:42 Unto perpetual servitude.
- Leviticus 25:45 For they shall not be bought out at the Jubilee.
- Leviticus 25:47 Hebrew, his hand take hold.
- Leviticus 25:49 If he be able.
- Leviticus 25:50 Which remain yet to the Jubilee.
- Leviticus 25:53 Thou shalt not suffer him to entreat him rigorously, if thou know it.