Chapter
25
Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai,
"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food.
"'You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to her own property, and each of you shall return to her family.
That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
"'In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to her property.
"'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops she shall sell to you.
According to the length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for she is selling the number of the crops to you.
You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.
"'Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;"
then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
"'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
"'If your sister becomes poor, and sells some of her possessions, then her kinswoman who is next to her shall come, and redeem that which her sister has sold.
If a woman has no one to redeem it, and she becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it;
then let her reckon the years since the sale of it, and restore the surplus to the woman to whom she sold it; and she shall return to her property.
But if she isn't able to get it back for herself, then what she has sold shall remain in the hand of her who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and she shall return to her property.
"'If a woman sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then she may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year she shall have the right of redemption.
If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to her who bought it, throughout her generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.
But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
"'Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of her possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
"'If your sister has become poor, and her hand can't support her among you; then you shall uphold her. As a stranger and a sojourner she shall live with you.
Take no interest from her or profit, but fear your God; that your sister may live among you.
You shall not lend her your money at interest, nor give her your food for profit.
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
"'If your sister has grown poor among you, and sells herself to you; you shall not make her to serve as a slave.
As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, she shall be with you; she shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee:
then she shall go out from you, she and her children with her, and shall return to her own family, and to the possession of her mothers.
For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
You shall not rule over her with harshness, but shall fear your God.
"'As for your female and your male slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy female and male slaves.
Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.
You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your sisters the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
"'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your sister beside her has grown poor, and sells herself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family;
after she is sold she may be redeemed. One of her sisters may redeem her;
or her uncle, or her uncle's daughter, may redeem her, or any who is a close relative to her of her family may redeem her; or if she has grown rich, she may redeem herself.
She shall reckon with her who bought her from the year that she sold herself to her to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of her sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall she be with her.
If there are yet many years, according to them she shall give back the price of her redemption out of the money that she was bought for.
If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then she shall reckon with her; according to her years of service she shall give back the price of her redemption.
As a servant hired year by year shall she be with her: she shall not rule with harshness over her in your sight.
If she isn't redeemed by these means, then she shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, she, and her children with her.
For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.