Leviticus 25 (NIV) - The LORD said to Moses

Lev 25:1The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai,

Lev 25:2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD.

Lev 25:3

Lev 25:3For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.

Lev 25:4

Lev 25:4But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.

Lev 25:5

Lev 25:5Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.

Lev 25:6

Lev 25:6Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,

Lev 25:7

Lev 25:7as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

Lev 25:8

Lev 25:8“ ‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years.

Lev 25:9

Lev 25:9Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.

Lev 25:10

Lev 25:10Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.

Lev 25:11

Lev 25:11The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.

Lev 25:12

Lev 25:12For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

Lev 25:13

Lev 25:13“ ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.

Lev 25:14

Lev 25:14“ ‘If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other.

Lev 25:15

Lev 25:15You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops.

Lev 25:16

Lev 25:16When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops.

Lev 25:17

Lev 25:17Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.

Lev 25:18

Lev 25:18“ ‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.

Lev 25:19

Lev 25:19Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.

Lev 25:20

Lev 25:20You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?”

Lev 25:21

Lev 25:21I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.

Lev 25:22

Lev 25:22While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

Lev 25:23

Lev 25:23“ ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.

Lev 25:24

Lev 25:24Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

Lev 25:25

Lev 25:25“ ‘If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.

Lev 25:26

Lev 25:26If, however, there is no one to redeem it for them but later on they prosper and acquire sufficient means to redeem it themselves,

Lev 25:27

Lev 25:27they are to determine the value for the years since they sold it and refund the balance to the one to whom they sold it; they can then go back to their own property.

Lev 25:28

Lev 25:28But if they do not acquire the means to repay, what was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and they can then go back to their property.

Lev 25:29

Lev 25:29“ ‘Anyone who sells a house in a walled city retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time the seller may redeem it.

Lev 25:30

Lev 25:30If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and the buyer’s descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee.

Lev 25:31

Lev 25:31But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as belonging to the open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee.

Lev 25:32

Lev 25:32“ ‘The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess.

Lev 25:33

Lev 25:33So the property of the Levites is redeemable—that is, a house sold in any town they hold—and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites.

Lev 25:34

Lev 25:34But the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession.

Lev 25:35

Lev 25:35“ ‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.

Lev 25:36

Lev 25:36Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you.

Lev 25:37

Lev 25:37You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit.

Lev 25:38

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

Lev 25:39

Lev 25:39“ ‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves.

Lev 25:40

Lev 25:40They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

Lev 25:41

Lev 25:41Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors.

Lev 25:42

Lev 25:42Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.

Lev 25:43

Lev 25:43Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.

Lev 25:44

Lev 25:44“ ‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.

Lev 25:45

Lev 25:45You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.

Lev 25:46

Lev 25:46You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

Lev 25:47

Lev 25:47“ ‘If a foreigner residing among you becomes rich and any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner’s clan,

Lev 25:48

Lev 25:48they retain the right of redemption after they have sold themselves. One of their relatives may redeem them:

Lev 25:49

Lev 25:49An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in their clan may redeem them. Or if they prosper, they may redeem themselves.

Lev 25:50

Lev 25:50They and their buyer are to count the time from the year they sold themselves up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for their release is to be based on the rate paid to a hired worker for that number of years.

Lev 25:51

Lev 25:51If many years remain, they must pay for their redemption a larger share of the price paid for them.

Lev 25:52

Lev 25:52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they are to compute that and pay for their redemption accordingly.

Lev 25:53

Lev 25:53They are to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those to whom they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly.

Lev 25:54

Lev 25:54“ ‘Even if someone is not redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee,

Lev 25:55

Lev 25:55for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 25 :: New International Version (NIV)

The Sabbath Year

The Year of Jubilee