Leviticus 25

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,	1 And the Lord spoke to Moses on 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 to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you will have entered into the land which I will give to you, rest on the Sabbath of the Lord.
3 For six years you may sow your field, and for six years prune your vineyard, gathering in their produce.	3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall care for your vineyard, and you shall gather its fruits.
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, there shall be a Sabbath of the land, a resting of the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not care for your 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 What the soil shall spontaneously produce, you shall not harvest. And you shall not gather the grapes of the first-fruits as a crop. For it is a year of rest for 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 But these shall be yours for food, for you and for your men and women servants, and for your hired hands, and for the newcomers who sojourn with you:
7 and likewise for your livestock and for the wild animals on your land.	7 all that grows on its own shall provide food for your beasts and cattle.
8 "Seven weeks of years shall you count--seven times seven years--so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.	8 You shall also number for yourselves seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven, which together makes forty-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 And you shall sound the trumpet in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, at the time of the atonement, 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 you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a remission for all the inhabitants of your land: for the same is the Jubilee. A man shall return to his possession, and each one shall go back to his original 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 for it is the Jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows in the field of its own accord, and you shall not gather the first-fruits of the crop,
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 due to the sanctification of the Jubilee. But you shall eat them as they present themselves.
13 "In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property.	13 In the year of the Jubilee, all shall return to their possessions.
14 Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.	14 When you will sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy anything from him, do not cause your brother grief, but buy from him according to the number of years from the Jubilee,
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 and he shall sell to you according to the computation of the produce.
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 The more years that will remain after the Jubilee, the more the price shall increase, and the less the time is numbered, so much less shall the purchase price be. For he will sell to you the time for the produce.
17 Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God.	17 Do be willing to afflict your countrymen, but let each one fear his 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 Accomplish my precepts, and observe my judgments, and complete them, so that you may be able to live in the land without any fear,
19 The land will yield its fruit and you will have food in abundance, so that you may live there without worry.	19 and so that the soil may produce its fruits for you, from which you may eat, even to fullness, dreading violence by no one.
20 Therefore, do not say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not then sow or reap our crop?'	20 But if you will say: What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and do not gather our produce?
21 I will bestow such blessings on you in the sixth year that there will then be crop enough for three years.	21 I will give my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall yield the produce of 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 in the eighth year you shall sow, but you shall eat from the old produce, until the ninth year, until what is new matures, you shall eat what is old.
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 Also, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is mine, and you are newcomers and settlers to me.
24 Therefore, in every part of the country that you occupy, you must permit the land to be redeemed.	24 Therefore, every region of your possession shall be sold under the condition of redemption.
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 your brother, being in need, will have sold his little possession and his close relative is willing, he is able to redeem what he had 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 But if he has no near relative, and he himself is able to find the price 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 the produce shall be calculated from that time when he sold it. And what is lacking, he shall repay to the buyer, and so he shall receive 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 his hand will not have discovered a way to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the Jubilee. For in that year all that has been sold shall return to the owner, and to the original possessor.
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 Whoever will have sold a house within the walls of a city shall have the freedom to redeem it, until one year has been completed.
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 If he has not redeemed it, and the year will have turned full circle, the buyer and his posterity shall possess it, in perpetuity, and it is not able to be redeemed, even in the Jubilee.
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 if the house is in a village, which has no walls, it shall be sold by the law of the fields. If it has not been redeemed beforehand, then in the Jubilee it shall return to the owner.
32 "In levitical cities the Levites shall always have the right to redeem the town houses that are their property.	32 The buildings of the Levites, which are in the cities, are always able to be redeemed.
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 If they have not been redeemed, then in the Jubilee they shall return to the owners, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possession among the sons 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 let not their suburbs be sold, for it is an everlasting 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 If your brother has become impoverished, or infirm of hand, and you take him in, like a newcomer or a sojourner, and he lives with you,
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 do not accept usury from him, nor anything more than what you gave. Fear your God, so that your brother may be able to live with you.
37 You are to lend him neither money at interest nor food at a profit.	37 You shall not give him your money by usury, nor exact from him an overabundance of produce.
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, who led you away from the land of Egypt, so that I might give to you the land of Canaan, and so that I may 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 If your brother, having been compelled by poverty, will have sold himself to you, you shall not oppress him with the servitude of indentured servants.
40 Rather, let him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with you until the jubilee year,	40 But he shall be like a hired hand or a settler; he shall work with you, until the year of the Jubilee.
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 after that, he shall depart with his children, and he shall return to his kindred, to the possession of his fathers.
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 these are my servants, and I led them away from the land of Egypt; let them not be sold into the condition of servitude.
43 Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of your God.	43 Do not afflict him by power, but be fearful of your God.
44 "Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you buy them from among the neighboring nations.	44 Let your male and female servants be from the nations which are all around you,
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 and from the newcomers who sojourn with you, or who have been born from them in your land. These you shall have as servants,
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, by the right of inheritance, you shall transmit them to your posterity, and you shall possess them forever. But do not oppress your brothers, the sons of Israel, by power.
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 If the hand of a newcomer or a sojourner will have grown strong among you, and your brother, having become impoverished, will have sold himself to him, or to any of his stock,
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 the sale, he is able to be redeemed. Whoever is willing among his brothers shall 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 the paternal uncle, or the paternal uncle’s son, or his close relative, by blood or by affinity. But if he himself will be able also, he shall 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 considering only the years from the time of his selling until the year of the Jubilee, and calculating the money for which he was sold, according to the number of years and the accounting of a hired hand.
51 The more such years there are, the more of the sale price he shall pay back as ransom;	51 If there will have been many years which remain until the Jubilee, according to these shall he also repay the price.
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 If few, he shall determine the accounting with him according to the number of years, and he shall repay to the buyer by what is left remaining of the years;
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 his wages being charged by what served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight.
54 If he is not thus redeemed, he shall nevertheless be released, together with his children, in the jubilee year.	54 But if, by these means, he will not be able to be redeemed, then in the year of the Jubilee he shall depart with his children.
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 they are my servants, the sons of Israel, whom I led away from the land of Egypt.