Leviticus 25 :: Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

(Deu 15:1–11 )

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

Lev 25:2"Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.

Lev 25:3

Lev 25:3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;

Lev 25:4

Lev 25:4but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Lev 25:5

Lev 25:5What 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.

Lev 25:6

Lev 25:6The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you;

Lev 25:7

Lev 25:7for your cattle also and for the beasts that are in your land all its yield shall be for food.

Lev 25:8

Lev 25:8"And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years.

Lev 25:9

Lev 25:9Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.

Lev 25:10

Lev 25:10And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.

Lev 25:11

Lev 25:11A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines.

Lev 25:12

Lev 25:12For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field.

Lev 25:13

Lev 25:13"In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.

Lev 25:14

Lev 25:14And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.

Lev 25:15

Lev 25:15According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you.

Lev 25:16

Lev 25:16If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you.

Lev 25:17

Lev 25:17You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

Lev 25:18

Lev 25:18"Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and perform them; so you will dwell in the land securely.

Lev 25:19

Lev 25:19The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely.

Lev 25:20

Lev 25:20And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'

Lev 25:21

Lev 25:21I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that it will bring forth fruit for three years.

Lev 25:22

Lev 25:22When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.

The Law of Redemption

Lev 25:23

Lev 25:23The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

Lev 25:24

Lev 25:24And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land.

Lev 25:25

Lev 25:25"If your brother becomes poor, and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.

Lev 25:26

Lev 25:26If a man has no one to redeem it, and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it,

Lev 25:27

Lev 25:27let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.

Lev 25:28

Lev 25:28But if he has not sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.

Lev 25:29

Lev 25:29"If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a whole year after its sale; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption.

Lev 25:30

Lev 25:30If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee.

Lev 25:31

Lev 25:31But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.

Lev 25:32

Lev 25:32Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.

Lev 25:33

Lev 25:33And if one of the Levites does not exercise his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city of their possession shall be released in the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel.

Lev 25:34

Lev 25:34But the fields of common land belonging to their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession.

Of Poor Countrymen

Lev 25:35

Lev 25:35"And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you.

Lev 25:36

Lev 25:36Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you.

Lev 25:37

Lev 25:37You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

Lev 25:38

Lev 25:38I 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.

Lev 25:39

Lev 25:39"And if your brother becomes poor beside you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:

Lev 25:40

Lev 25:40he shall be with you as a hired servant and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee;

Lev 25:41

Lev 25:41then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own family, and return to the possession of his fathers.

Lev 25:42

Lev 25:42For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.

Lev 25:43

Lev 25:43You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

Lev 25:44

Lev 25:44As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you.

Lev 25:45

Lev 25:45You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.

Lev 25:46

Lev 25:46You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

Lev 25:47

Lev 25:47"If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to a member of the stranger's family,

Lev 25:48

Lev 25:48then after he is sold he may be redeemed; one of his brothers may redeem him,

Lev 25:49

Lev 25:49or his uncle, or his cousin may redeem him, or a near kinsman belonging to his family may redeem him; or if he grows rich he may redeem himself.

Lev 25:50

Lev 25:50He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his release shall be according to the number of years; the time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired servant.

Lev 25:51

Lev 25:51If there are still many years, according to them he shall refund out of the price paid for him the price for his redemption.

Lev 25:52

Lev 25:52If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall make a reckoning with him; according to the years of service due from him he shall refund the money for his redemption.

Lev 25:53

Lev 25:53As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him; he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.

Lev 25:54

Lev 25:54And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him.

Lev 25:55

Lev 25:55For to me the people of Israel are servants, they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

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Source: Transcribed from: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version containing the Old and New Testaments, translated from the original tongues: being the version set forth A.D. 1611, revised A.D. 1881-1885 and A.D. 1901: compared with the most ancient authorities and revised A.D. 1946-52. — 2nd ed. of New Testament A.D. 1971. There should be enough in the rest of the description to identify the text.

Language: English

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Leviticus 25 :: Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

The Law of Redemption

Of Poor Countrymen

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

Pericope