Leviticus 25–26

Chapter 25

And the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying:

²Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have entered into the land which I will give you, observe the rest of the sabbath of the Lord.

³Six years thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and shalt gather the fruits thereof.

⁴But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath to the land, of the resting of the Lord. Thou shalt not sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

⁵What the ground shall bring forth of itself, thou shalt not reap: neither shalt thou gather the grapes or the firstfruits as a vintage. For it is a year of rest to the land.

⁶But they shall be unto you for meat, to thee and to thy manservant, to thy maidservant and thy hireling, and to the strangers that sojourn with thee.

⁷All things that grow shall be meat to thy beasts and to thy cattle.

⁸Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years: that is to say, seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years.

⁹And thou shalt sound the trumpet in the seventh month, the tenth day of the month, in the time of the expiation in all your land.

¹⁰And thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee. Every man shall return to his possession, and every one shall go back to his former family:

¹¹Because it is the jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, nor reap the things that grow in the field of their own accord, neither shall you gather the firstfruits of the vines,

¹²Because of the sanctification of the jubilee. But as they grow you shall presently eat them.

¹³In the year of the jubilee all shall return to their possessions.

¹⁴When thou shalt sell any thing to thy neighbour, or shalt buy of him: grieve not thy brother. But thou shalt buy of him according to the number of years from the jubilee.

¹⁵And he shall sell to thee according to the computation of the fruits.

¹⁶The more years remain after the jubilee, the more shall the price increase: and the less time is counted, so much the less shall the purchase cost. For he shall sell to thee the time of the fruits.

¹⁷Do not afflict your countrymen: but let every one fear his God. Because I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸Do my precepts, and keep my judgments, and fulfil them: that you may dwell in the land without any fear.

¹⁹And the ground may yield you its fruits, of which you may eat your fill, fearing no man’s invasion.

²⁰But if you say: What shall we eat the seventh year, if we sow not, nor gather our fruits?

²¹I will give you my blessing the sixth year: and it shall yield the fruits of three years.

²²And the eighth year you shall sow, and shall eat of the old fruits, until the ninth year: till new grow up, you shall eat the old store.

²³The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me.

²⁴For which cause all the country of your possession shall be under the condition of redemption.

²⁵If thy brother being impoverished sell his little possession, and his kinsman will: he may redeem what he had sold.

²⁶But if he have no kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it:

²⁷The value of the fruits shall be counted from that time when he sold it. And the overplus he shall restore to the buyer, and so shall receive his possession again.

²⁸But if his hands find not the means to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the jubilee. For in that year all that is sold shall return to the owner, and to the ancient possessor.

²⁹He that selleth a house within the walls of a city, shall have the liberty to redeem it, until one year be expired.

³⁰If he redeem it not, and the whole year be fully out, the buyer shall possess it, and his posterity for ever, and it cannot be redeemed, not even in the jubilee.

³¹But if the house be in a village, that hath no walls, it shall be sold according to the same law as the fields. If it be not redeemed before, in the jubilee it shall return to the owner.

³²The houses of Levites, which are in cities, may always be redeemed.

³³If they be not redeemed, in the jubilee they shall all return to the owners: because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possessions among the children of Israel.

³⁴But let not their suburbs be sold, because it is a perpetual possession.

³⁵If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee:

³⁶Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest. Fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee.

³⁷Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury: nor exact of him any increase of fruits.

³⁸I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might give you the land of Chanaan, and might be your God.

³⁹If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee: thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants.

⁴⁰But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee.

⁴¹And afterwards he shall go out with his children: and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers.

⁴²For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen.

⁴³Afflict him not by might: but fear thy God.

⁴⁴Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are round about you:

⁴⁵And of the strangers that sojourn among you, or that were born of them in your land. These you shall have for servants:

⁴⁶And by right of inheritance shall leave them to your posterity, and shall possess them for ever. But oppress not your brethren the children of Israel by might.

⁴⁷If the hand of a stranger or a sojourner grow strong among you, and thy brother being impoverished sell himself to him, or to any of his race:

⁴⁸After the sale he may be redeemed. He that will of his brethren shall redeem him:

⁴⁹Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, or his kinsman, by blood, or by affinity. But if he himself be able also, he shall redeem himself:

⁵⁰Counting only the years from the time of his selling unto the year of the jubilee: and counting the money that he was sold for, according to the number of the years and the reckoning of a hired servant.

⁵¹If there be many years that remain until the jubilee, according to them shall he also repay the price.

⁵²If few, he shall make the reckoning with him according to the number of the years: and shall repay to the buyer of what remaineth of the years.

⁵³His wages being allowed for which he served before: he shall not afflict him violently in thy sight.

⁵⁴And if by these means he cannot be redeemed, in the year of the jubilee he shall go out with his children.

⁵⁵For the children of Israel are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.

Chapter 26

I am the Lord your God. You shall not make to yourselves any idol or graven thing: neither shall you erect pillars, nor set up a remarkable stone in your land, to adore it. For I am the Lord your God.

²Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³If you walk in my precepts, and keep my commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons.

⁴And the ground shall bring forth its increase: and the trees shall be filled with fruit.

⁵The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear.

⁶I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters.

⁷You shall pursue your enemies: and they shall fall before you.

⁸Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others: and a hundred of you ten thousand. Your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

⁹I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish my covenant with you.

¹⁰You shall eat the oldest of the old store: and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old.

¹¹I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you: and my soul shall not cast you off.

¹²I will walk among you, and will be your God: and you shall be my people.

¹³I am the Lord your God: who have brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them: and who have broken the chains of your necks, that you might go upright.

¹⁴But if you will not hear me, nor do all my commandments:

¹⁵If you despise my laws, and contemn my judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by me, and to make void my covenant:

¹⁶I also will do these things to you. I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies.

¹⁷I will set my face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies: and shall be made subject to them that hate you. You shall flee when no man pursueth you.

¹⁸But if you will not yet for all this obey me: I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

¹⁹And I will break the pride of your stubbornness: and I will make to you the heaven above as iron, and the earth as brass.

²⁰Your labour shall be spent in vain: the ground shall not bring forth her increase: nor the trees yield their fruit.

²¹If you walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins.

²²And I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number: and that your highways may be desolate.

²³And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to me:

²⁴I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins.

²⁵And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge my covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in…