Leviticus 25

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and said:

² 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "When you enter the country which I am giving you, the landmust keep a Sabbath's rest for Yahweh.

³ For six years you wil sow your field, for six years you wil prune your vineyard and gather its produce.

⁴ But in the seventh year the land wil have a sabbatical rest, a Sabbath for Yahweh. You wil neithersow your field, nor prune your vineyard,

⁵ nor reap any grain which has grown of its own accord, nor gather the grapes from your untrimmedvine. It wil be a year of rest for the land.

⁶ But what the land produces in its Sabbath wil serve to feed you, your slave, male or female, youremployee and your guest residing with you;

⁷ for your cattle too, and the wild animals of your country, whatever it produces wil serve as food.

⁸ "You wil count seven weeks of years -- seven times seven years, that is to say a period of sevenweeks of years, forty-nine years.

⁹ And on the tenth day of the seventh month you wil sound the trumpet; on the Day of Expiation you wilsound the trumpet throughout the land.

¹⁰ You wil declare this fiftieth year to be sacred and proclaim the liberation of al the country'sinhabitants. You will keep this as a jubilee: each of you wil return to his ancestral property, each to his own clan.

¹¹ This fiftieth year wil be a jubilee year for you; in it you wil not sow, you wil not harvest the grain thathas come up on its own or in it gather grapes from your untrimmed vine.

¹² The jubilee wil be a holy thing for you; during it you wil eat whatever the fields produce.

¹³ "In this year of jubilee, each of you wil return to his ancestral property.

¹⁴ If you buy land from, or sell land to, your fel ow-countryman, neither of you may exploit the other.

¹⁵ In buying from your fel ow-countryman, you will take account of the number of years since the jubilee;the sale-price he fixes for you will depend on the number of productive years still to run.

¹⁶ The greater the number of years, the higher the price you wil ask for it; the fewer the number ofyears, the greater the reduction; for what he is sel ing you is a certain number of harvests.

¹⁷ So you wil not exploit one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.

¹⁸ "Hence, you wil put my laws and customs into practice; you will keep them and put them intopractice, and you wil live securely in the country.

¹⁹ The land wil give its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live in security.

²⁰ "In case you should ask: What shal we eat in this seventh year if we do not sow or harvest ourproduce?

²¹ I shall order my blessing to be on you in the sixth year, which wil yield you enough produce for threeyears.

²² You wil have the old produce to eat while you are sowing in the eighth year, and even in the ninthyear, you wil be eating the old produce, while waiting for the harvest of that year.

²³ "Land wil not be sold absolutely, for the land belongs to me, and you are only strangers and guestsof mine.

²⁴ You wil al ow a right of redemption over any ancestral property.

²⁵ If your brother becomes impoverished and sel s off part of his ancestral property, his nearest malerelative wil come and exercise his family rights over what his brother has sold.

²⁶ The man who has no one to exercise this right may, once he has found the means to effect theredemption,

²⁷ calculate the number of years that the alienation would have lasted, repay to the purchaser the sumdue for the time stil to run, and so recover his ancestral property.

²⁸ If he cannot find the sum in compensation, the property sold will remain in the possession of thepurchaser until the jubilee year. In the jubilee year, the latter wil vacate it and return to his own ancestralproperty.

²⁹ "If anyone sel s a dwel ing house inside a wal ed town, he wil have the right of redemption until theexpiry of the year fol owing the sale. His right of redemption is limited to the year;

³⁰ and if the redemption has not been effected by the end of the year, the house in the wal ed town wilbecome the property of the purchaser and his descendants in perpetuity; he need not vacate it at the jubilee.

³¹ But houses in villages not enclosed by wal s wil be considered as situated in the open country; theycarry the right of redemption, and the purchaser wil vacate them at the jubilee.

³² "As regards the towns of the Levites, town houses forming part of their ancestral property wil carry aperpetual right of redemption in their favour.

³³ If a Levite is the one to be affected by the right of redemption, at the jubilee he will vacate thepurchased property and return to his own home, to the town in which he has a title to property. The houses in theLevites' towns represent their ancestral property in Israel,

³⁴ and the arable land depending on these towns cannot be sold, being their ancestral property for ever.

³⁵ "If your brother becomes impoverished and cannot support himself in the community, you wil assisthim as you would a stranger or guest, so that he can go on living with you.

³⁶ Do not charge him interest on a loan, but fear your God, and let your brother live with you.

³⁷ You wil not lend him money on interest or give him food to make a profit out of it.

³⁸ I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and be yourGod.

³⁹ "If your brother becomes impoverished while with you and sells himself to you, you will not make himdo the work of a slave;

⁴⁰ you wil treat him like an employee or guest, and he wil work for you until the jubilee year.

⁴¹ He wil then leave you, both he and his children, and return to his clan and regain possession of hisancestral property.

⁴² For they are my servants whom I have brought out of Egypt, and they may not be bought and sold asslaves.

⁴³ You wil not oppress your brother-Israelites harshly but wil fear your God.

⁴⁴ "The male and female slaves you have wil come from the nations round you; from these you maypurchase male and female slaves.

⁴⁵ As slaves, you may also purchase the children of aliens resident among you, and also members oftheir families living with you who have been born on your soil; and they will become your property,

⁴⁶ and you may leave them as a legacy to your sons after you as their perpetual possession. These youmay have for slaves; but you wil not oppress your brother-Israelites.

⁴⁷ "If a stranger or guest living with you gets rich and your brother, in the course of dealings with him,becomes impoverished and sel s himself to this stranger or guest, or to the descendant of a stranger's family,

⁴⁸ he wil enjoy the right of redemption after being sold, and one of his brothers may redeem him.

⁴⁹ His paternal uncle, his uncle's son, or a member of his own family may redeem him; if he has themeans, he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰ By agreement with his purchaser, he wil count the number of years between the year of sale and thejubilee year; his sale-price will be proportionate to the number of years, his time being valued as that of anemployee.

⁵¹ If there are stil many years to run, in proportion to their number he wil refund part of his sale-price aspayment for his redemption.

⁵² And if there are only a few years stil to run before the jubilee year, he wil calculate with him whatshould be refunded for his redemption, in proportion to their number,

⁵³ as though he were hired by the year. You wil see to it that he is not harshly oppressed.

⁵⁴ "If he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, he wil go free in the jubilee year, both he and hischildren;

⁵⁵ for the Israelites are my servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am Yahwehyour God." '