Leviticus 25

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and said:	1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
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.	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.
3 For six years you wil sow your field, for six years you wil prune your vineyard and gather its produce.	3 For six years you may sow your field, and for six years prune your vineyard, gathering in their 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,	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.
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.	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.
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;	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,
7 for your cattle too, and the wild animals of your country, whatever it produces wil serve as food.	7 and likewise for your livestock and for the wild animals on your land.
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.	8 "Seven weeks of years shall you count--seven times seven years--so that the seven cycles amount to 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.	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.
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.	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.
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.	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.
12 The jubilee wil be a holy thing for you; during it you wil eat whatever the fields produce.	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.
13 "In this year of jubilee, each of you wil return to his ancestral property.	13 "In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property.
14 If you buy land from, or sell land to, your fel ow-countryman, neither of you may exploit the other.	14 Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.
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.	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.
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.	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.
17 So you wil not exploit one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.	17 Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am 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.	18 "Observe my precepts and be careful to keep my regulations, for then you will dwell securely in the land.
19 The land wil give its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live in security.	19 The land will yield its fruit and you will have food in abundance, so that you may live there without worry.
20 "In case you should ask: What shal we eat in this seventh year if we do not sow or harvest ourproduce?	20 Therefore, do not say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not then sow or reap our crop?'
21 I shall order my blessing to be on you in the sixth year, which wil yield you enough produce for threeyears.	21 I will bestow such blessings on you in the sixth year that there will then be crop enough for three years.
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.	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.
23 "Land wil not be sold absolutely, for the land belongs to me, and you are only strangers and guestsof mine.	23 "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine, and you are but aliens who have become my tenants.
24 You wil al ow a right of redemption over any ancestral property.	24 Therefore, in every part of the country that you occupy, you must permit the land to be redeemed.
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.	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.
26 The man who has no one to exercise this right may, once he has found the means to effect theredemption,	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,
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.	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.
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.	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.
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;	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.
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.	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.
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.	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.
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.	32 "In levitical cities the Levites shall always have the right to redeem the town houses that are their property.
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,	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.
34 and the arable land depending on these towns cannot be sold, being their ancestral property for ever.	34 Moreover, the pasture land belonging to their cities shall not be sold at all; it must always remain their hereditary property.
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.	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.
36 Do not charge him interest on a loan, but fear your God, and let your brother live 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.
37 You wil not lend him money on interest or give him food to make a profit out of it.	37 You are to lend him neither money at interest nor food at a profit.
38 I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and be yourGod.	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.
39 "If your brother becomes impoverished while with you and sells himself to you, you will not make himdo the work of a slave;	39 "When, then, your countryman becomes so impoverished beside you that he sells you his services, do not make him work as a slave.
40 you wil treat him like an employee or guest, and he wil work for you until the jubilee year.	40 Rather, let him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with 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.	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.
42 For they are my servants whom I have brought out of Egypt, and they may not be bought and sold asslaves.	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.
43 You wil not oppress your brother-Israelites harshly but wil fear your God.	43 Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of 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.	44 "Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you buy them from among the neighboring nations.
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,	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,
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.	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.
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,	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,
48 he wil enjoy the right of redemption after being sold, and one of his brothers may redeem him.	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,
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.	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.
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.	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.
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.	51 The more such years there are, the more of the sale price he shall pay back as ransom;
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,	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.
53 as though he were hired by the year. You wil see to it that he is not harshly oppressed.	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.
54 "If he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, he wil go free in the jubilee year, both he and hischildren;	54 If he is not thus redeemed, he shall nevertheless be released, together with his children, in the jubilee year.
55 for the Israelites are my servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am Yahwehyour God." '	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.