Leviticus 25 :: New English Translation (NET)

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

(Deu 15:1–11 )

Lev 25:1The LORD spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai:

Lev 25:2"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath to the LORD.

Lev 25:3

Lev 25:3Six years you may sow your field, and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather the produce,

Lev 25:4

Lev 25:4but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest - a Sabbath to the LORD. You must not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Lev 25:5

Lev 25:5You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned vines; the land must have a year of complete rest.

Lev 25:6

Lev 25:6You may have the Sabbath produce of the land to eat - you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you,

Lev 25:7

Lev 25:7your cattle, and the wild animals that are in your land - all its produce will be for you to eat.

Lev 25:8

Lev 25:8"'You must count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years.

Lev 25:9

Lev 25:9You must sound loud horn blasts - in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement - you must sound the horn in your entire land.

Lev 25:10

Lev 25:10So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, and you must proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; each one of you must return to his property and each one of you must return to his clan.

Lev 25:11

Lev 25:11That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines.

Lev 25:12

Lev 25:12Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you - you may eat its produce from the field.

Lev 25:13

Lev 25:13"'In this year of jubilee you must each return to your property.

Lev 25:14

Lev 25:14If you make a sale to your fellow citizen or buy from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother.

Lev 25:15

Lev 25:15You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left.

Lev 25:16

Lev 25:16The more years there are, the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of produce.

Lev 25:17

Lev 25:17No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, but you must fear your God, because I am the LORD your God.

Lev 25:18

Lev 25:18You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them so that you may live securely in the land.

Lev 25:19

Lev 25:19"'The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, and you may live securely in the land.

Lev 25:20

Lev 25:20If you say, 'What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?'

Lev 25:21

Lev 25:21I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield the produce for three years,

Lev 25:22

Lev 25:22and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year's produce - old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year's produce, you may eat old produce.

The Law of Redemption

Lev 25:23

Lev 25:23The land must not be sold without reclaim because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me.

Lev 25:24

Lev 25:24In all your landed property you must provide for the right of redemption of the land.

Lev 25:25

Lev 25:25"'If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold.

Lev 25:26

Lev 25:26If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers and gains enough for its redemption,

Lev 25:27

Lev 25:27he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, refund the balance to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property.

Lev 25:28

Lev 25:28If he has not prospered enough to refund a balance to him, then what he sold will belong to the one who bought it until the jubilee year, but it must revert in the jubilee and the original owner may return to his property.

Lev 25:29

Lev 25:29"'If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, its right of redemption must extend until one full year from its sale; its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year.

Lev 25:30

Lev 25:30If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, the house in the walled city will belong without reclaim to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the jubilee.

Lev 25:31

Lev 25:31The houses of villages, however, which have no wall surrounding them must be considered as the field of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee.

Lev 25:32

Lev 25:32As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption.

Lev 25:33

Lev 25:33Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem - the sale of a house which is his property in a city - must revert in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites.

Lev 25:34

Lev 25:34Moreover, the open field areas of their cities must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.

Of Poor Countrymen

Lev 25:35

Lev 25:35"'If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident.

Lev 25:36

Lev 25:36Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you.

Lev 25:37

Lev 25:37You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit.

Lev 25:38

Lev 25:38I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan - to be your God.

Lev 25:39

Lev 25:39"'If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service.

Lev 25:40

Lev 25:40He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee,

Lev 25:41

Lev 25:41but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors.

Lev 25:42

Lev 25:42Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale.

Lev 25:43

Lev 25:43You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.

Lev 25:44

Lev 25:44"'As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you - you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you.

Lev 25:45

Lev 25:45Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.

Lev 25:46

Lev 25:46You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly.

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

Lev 25:47

Lev 25:47"'If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member of a foreigner's family,

Lev 25:48

Lev 25:48after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him,

Lev 25:49

Lev 25:49or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives - his family - may redeem him, or if he prospers he may redeem himself.

Lev 25:50

Lev 25:50He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him.

Lev 25:51

Lev 25:51If there are still many years, in keeping with them he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption,

Lev 25:52

Lev 25:52but if only a few years remain until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption.

Lev 25:53

Lev 25:53He must be with the one who bought him like a yearly hired worker. The one who bought him must not rule over him harshly in your sight.

Lev 25:54

Lev 25:54If, however, he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free in the jubilee year, he and his children with him,

Lev 25:55

Lev 25:55because the Israelites are my own servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

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Leviticus 25 :: New English Translation (NET)

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

The Law of Redemption

Of Poor Countrymen

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

Pericope