²⁴People must always have the right to buy their property back. ²⁵If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his property, then the one who can assume responsibility, his nearest relative, must buy back what he sold. ²⁶If a man doesn’t have anyone to buy it back for him, but if he prospers and earns enough to buy it back himself, ²⁷he must count the years from its sale. Then he will pay what is left to the man to whom he sold it, and it will be his property again. ²⁸However, if he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again.

²⁹“If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. ³⁰If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. ³¹However, houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee.

³²“The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. ³³If any Levite buys back ⸤a house⸥, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released, because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. ³⁴But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their permanent property.

The Jubilee for the People

³⁵“If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. ³⁶Don’t collect interest or make any profit from him. Fear your God by respecting other Israelites’ lives. ³⁷Never collect any kind of interest on your money or on the food you give them. ³⁸I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹“If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, don’t work him like a slave. ⁴⁰He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. ⁴¹Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors. ⁴²They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves. ⁴³Do not treat them harshly. Fear your God.

⁴⁴“You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. ⁴⁵You may also buy them from the foreigners living among you and from their families born in your country. They will be your property. ⁴⁶You may acquire them for yourselves and for your descendants as permanent property. You may work them as slaves. However, do not treat the Israelites harshly. They are your relatives.

⁴⁷“Someone who is a foreigner without a permanent home among you may become rich, and your relative living with him may be poor. The poor Israelite may sell himself to that foreigner or a member of his family. ⁴⁸After he has sold himself, he has the right to be bought back. One of his brothers may buy him back. ⁴⁹His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. ⁵⁰Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer, like the wages of a hired worker. ⁵¹If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal ⸤to those years⸥. ⁵²If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years.

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