Old Testament · Law

Leviticus chapter 25

Yahweh spoke to Moses on :“Tell the Israelites: When you enter the land I’m giving you, the land itself must observe a for Yahweh.For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest their produce.But in the seventh year, the land must have a , a rest that . Don’t plant your fields or prune your vineyards.Don’t harvest from the previous crop, and don’t pick grapes from your untended vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land.Whatever the land produces during its rest year will be food for all of you -- for you, your male and female workers, your hired laborers, and the ,as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Everything it produces may be eaten.“Count off -- seven times seven years -- so that the seven sets of seven years come to forty-nine years.Then on the tenth day of the seventh month, have the sounded everywhere. On the , sound the horn throughout your entire land. and announce throughout the land for everyone living in it. This will be your . Each of you will return to your family’s property, and each of you will return to your clan.The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee. Don’t plant, don’t harvest what grows on its own, and don’t pick grapes from your untended vines.Because it’s a Jubilee, you must treat the year as . Eat only what the field produces on its own.“In this Jubilee year, each of you must return to .When you sell property to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, each other.When you buy from your neighbor, calculate the price based on the number of years since the last Jubilee. Your neighbor should sell to you based on the number of harvest years remaining.The more years remaining, the higher the price; the fewer years remaining, the lower the price -- because what’s actually being sold is the .Don’t take advantage of each other. Instead, your God, because I am Yahweh your God.“Follow my and carefully observe my regulations, and you will in the land.The land will produce its fruit, and you’ll eat your fill and live there securely.And if you ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or harvest our crops?’I will send my on you in the sixth year so that the land produces enough for three years.When you plant in the eighth year, you’ll still be eating from the stored harvest of the old crop. You’ll keep eating from it until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.“The land must never be sold permanently, because . You are as far as I’m concerned.Throughout the land you possess, you must provide for the of the land.If one of your people becomes poor and has to sell some of their property, their should come and what they sold.If someone has no relative to buy it back but later becomes prosperous enough to buy it back themselves,they should calculate the years since the sale, refund the remaining value to the buyer, and return to their property.But if they can’t afford to buy it back, then what was sold stays with the buyer until the Jubilee year. At the Jubilee it will be , and they’ll return to their property.“If someone sells a house in a walled city, they have the right to buy it back for a full year after the sale. During that time they can buy it back.If it’s not bought back within that full year, then the house in the walled city the buyer and their descendants. It will not be released in the Jubilee.But houses in villages without walls are treated like open farmland. They can be bought back, and they must be released in the Jubilee.As for the cities belonging to the , the Levites always have the right to buy back houses in their cities.If a Levite’s property is not bought back, then the house that was sold in one of their cities will still be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in Levite cities are their permanent property among the Israelites.The pasturelands around their cities must not be sold at all -- that is their .“If one of your people becomes poor and can’t support themselves among you, the way you would help a foreigner or temporary resident, so they can continue living among you.Don’t charge them or make a off them. Live in reverence of your God, so that your people can continue living among you.Don’t lend them money at interest or sell them food for a profit.I am Yahweh your God, who to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.“If one of your people becomes so poor that they sell themselves to you, don’t make them work as a .They should be treated like a or a temporary resident among you. They’ll work for you until the Jubilee year.Then they and their children will be from your service. They’ll go back to their own clan and return to the property of their ancestors.Because the Israelites are -- I brought them out of Egypt. They must not be sold as slaves are sold.Don’t . Live in reverence of your God.“As for male and female that you may have -- you may buy male and female slaves from the nations around you.You may also buy them from the children of the foreigners living among you -- from their families that are with you, those born in your land. They may become your .You may pass them on to your children as inherited property and make them serve for life. But as for your fellow Israelites, none of you may rule harshly over another.“If a foreigner or temporary resident among you becomes wealthy, and one of your people living near them becomes poor and sells themselves to that foreigner or temporary resident, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan,they still have the after selling themselves. One of their relatives may buy them back.An uncle, a cousin, or any close blood relative from their clan may buy them back. Or if they become prosperous enough, they may .They must calculate with the buyer from the year they sold themselves to the Jubilee year. The will be based on the daily rate of a hired worker for that number of years.If many years remain, they must pay back a larger portion of the purchase price for their release.If only a few years remain until the Jubilee year, they should calculate accordingly and pay for their release based on the remaining years.They are to be treated as a worker hired year by year. Make sure the owner doesn’t rule over them harshly .Even if they aren’t bought back through any of these means, they and their children must still be released in the Jubilee year.Because the Israelites are my servants. They are . .”