Leveticus

Chapter 25

1. And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
5. That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your untended vine: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6. And the sabbath of the land shall be food for you; for you, and for your male and female servants, and for your hired man, and for your stranger that sojourns with you,
7. And for your cattle, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be food.
8. And you shall number seven sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto you forty and nine years.
9. Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.
11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of your untended vine.
12. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat what it yields thereof out of the field.
13. In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession.
14. And if you sell anything unto your neighbor, or buy anything of your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another:
15. According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, and according unto the number of years of crops he shall sell unto you:
16. According to the multitude of years you shall increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years you shall diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of crops does he sell unto you.
17. You shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am the LORD your God.
18. Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
19. And the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20. And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
21. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22. And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until its new fruits come in you shall eat of the old fruit.
23. The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.
24. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25. If your brother becomes poor, and has 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. And if the man has none to redeem it, but he becomes able to redeem it;
27. Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overpayment unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
28. But if he is not able to restore it to himself, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return unto his possession.
29. And if a man sells 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. And if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established forever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not be released in the jubilee.
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 be released in the jubilee.
32. Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
33. And if a man purchases a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall be released in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34. But the field of the common lands of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35. And if your brother becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you; then you shall help him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with you.
36. Take you no interest from him, or profit: but fear your God; that your brother may live with you.
37. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor lend him your food for profit.
38. I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39. And if your brother that dwells by you becomes poor, and is sold unto you; you shall not compel him to serve as a slave:
40. But as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the year of jubilee:
41. And then shall he depart from you, 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. For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as slaves.
43. You shall not rule over him with harshness; but shall fear your God.
44. Both your male and female slaves, whom you shall have, shall be of the nations that are round about you; of them shall you buy male and female slaves.
45. Also of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, whom they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46. And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your slaves forever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, you shall not rule one over another with harshness.
47. And if a sojourner or stranger becomes rich near you, and your brother that dwells near him becomes poor, and sells himself unto the stranger or sojourner near you, or to a member of the stranger's family:
48. After he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:
49. Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is near of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he is able, he may redeem himself.
50. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his release shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant shall it be with him.
51. If there be yet many years left, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
53. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.
54. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he, and his children with him.
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.