Leviticus 25

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	KING JAMES BIBLE
1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,	1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, let the land, too, keep a sabbath for the LORD.	2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 For six years you may sow your field, and for six years prune your vineyard, gathering in their produce.	3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 But during the seventh year the land shall have a complete rest, a sabbath for the LORD, when you may neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.	4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap, nor shall you pick the grapes of your untrimmed vines in this year of sabbath rest for the land.	5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6 While the land has its sabbath, all its produce will be food equally for you yourself and for your male and female slaves, for your hired help and the tenants who live with you,	6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
7 and likewise for your livestock and for the wild animals on your land.	7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 "Seven weeks of years shall you count--seven times seven years--so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.	8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
9 Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month let the trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your land.	9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10 This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate.	10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
11 In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines.	11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
12 Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you may not eat of its produce, except as taken directly from the field.	12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13 "In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property.	13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14 Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.	14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
15 On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee shall you purchase the land from him; and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops, shall he sell it to you.	15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:
16 When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more; when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less. For it is really the number of crops that he sells you.	16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
17 Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God.	17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.
18 "Observe my precepts and be careful to keep my regulations, for then you will dwell securely in the land.	18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
19 The land will yield its fruit and you will have food in abundance, so that you may live there without worry.	19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and he shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20 Therefore, do not say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not then sow or reap our crop?'	20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
21 I will bestow such blessings on you in the sixth year that there will then be crop enough for three years.	21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will continue to eat from the old crop; and even into the ninth year, when the crop comes in, you will still have the old to eat from.	22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
23 "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine, and you are but aliens who have become my tenants.	23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
24 Therefore, in every part of the country that you occupy, you must permit the land to be redeemed.	24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
25 When one of your countrymen is reduced to poverty and has to sell some of his property, his closest relative, who has the right to redeem it, may go and buy back what his kinsman has sold.	25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
26 If, however, the man has no relative to redeem his land, but later on acquires sufficient means to buy it back in his own name,	26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;
27 he shall make a deduction from the price in proportion to the number of years since the sale, and then pay back the balance to the one to whom he sold it, so that he may thus regain his own property.	27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
28 But if he does not acquire sufficient means to buy back his land, what he has sold shall remain in the possession of the purchaser until the jubilee, when it must be released and returned to its original owner.	28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
29 "When someone sells a dwelling in a walled town, he has the right to buy it back during the time of one full year from its sale.	29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.
30 But if such a house in a walled town has not been redeemed at the end of a full year, it shall belong in perpetuity to the purchaser and his descendants; nor shall it be released in the jubilee.	30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.
31 However, houses in villages that are not encircled by walls shall be considered as belonging to the surrounding farm land; they may be redeemed at any time, and in the jubilee they must be released.	31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.
32 "In levitical cities the Levites shall always have the right to redeem the town houses that are their property.	32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
33 Any town house of the Levites in their cities that had been sold and not redeemed, shall be released in the jubilee; for the town houses of the Levites are their hereditary property in the midst of the Israelites.	33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34 Moreover, the pasture land belonging to their cities shall not be sold at all; it must always remain their hereditary property.	34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35 "When one of your fellow countrymen is reduced to poverty and is unable to hold out beside you, extend to him the privileges of an alien or a tenant, so that he may continue to live with you.	35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.
36 Do not exact interest from your countryman either in money or in kind, but out of fear of God let him live with you.	36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
37 You are to lend him neither money at interest nor food at a profit.	37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
38 I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.	38 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 "When, then, your countryman becomes so impoverished beside you that he sells you his services, do not make him work as a slave.	39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
40 Rather, let him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with you until the jubilee year,	40 But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
41 when he, together with his children, shall be released from your service and return to his kindred and to the property of his ancestors.	41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
42 Since those whom I brought out of the land of Egypt are servants of mine, they shall not be sold as slaves to any man.	42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
43 Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of your God.	43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
44 "Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you buy them from among the neighboring nations.	44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
45 You may also buy them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are born and reared in your land. Such slaves you may own as chattels,	45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46 and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, making them perpetual slaves. But you shall not lord it harshly over any of the Israelites, your kinsmen.	46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.
47 "When one of your countrymen is reduced to such poverty that he sells himself to a wealthy alien who has a permanent or a temporary residence among you, or to one of the descendants of an immigrant family,	47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:
48 even after he has thus sold his services he still has the right of redemption; he may be redeemed by one of his own brothers,	48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:
49 or by his uncle or cousin, or by some other relative or fellow clansman; or, if he acquires the means, he may redeem himself.	49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
50 With his purchaser he shall compute the years from the sale to the jubilee, distributing the sale price over these years as though he had been hired as a day laborer.	50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
51 The more such years there are, the more of the sale price he shall pay back as ransom;	51 If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52 the fewer years there are left before the jubilee year, the more he has to his credit; in proportion to his years of service shall he pay his ransom.	52 And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
53 The alien shall treat him as a servant hired on an annual basis, and he shall not lord it over him harshly under your very eyes.	53 And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.
54 If he is not thus redeemed, he shall nevertheless be released, together with his children, in the jubilee year.	54 And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him.
55 For to me the Israelites belong as servants; they are servants of mine, because I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I, the LORD, your God.	55 For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.