Leviticus 25–26

Sabbath Years and Jubilee

25The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to the Lord. ³You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. ⁴But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest ^jfor the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵You are not to reap what grows by itself from your crop, or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you—for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you. ⁷All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

⁸“You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to 49. ⁹Then you are to sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement. ^k10You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, ^lwhen each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan. ¹¹The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines. ¹²It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.

¹³“In this Year of Jubilee, each of you will return to his property. ¹⁴If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, do not cheat ^mone another. ¹⁵You are to make the purchase from your neighbor based on the number of years since the last Jubilee. He is to sell to you based on the number of remaining harvest years. ¹⁶You are to increase its price in proportion to a greater amount of years, and decrease its price in proportion to a lesser amount of years, because what he is selling to you is a number of harvests. ¹⁷You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.

¹⁸“You are to keep My statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land. ⁿ¹⁹Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. ²⁰If you wonder: ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’ ²¹I will appoint My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.

²³“The land is not to be permanently sold because it is Mine, and you are only foreigners and temporary residents on My land. ^op24You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy. ²⁵If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers ^qand obtains enough to redeem his land, ²⁷he may calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man he sold it to, and return to his property. ²⁸But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of its purchaser until the Year of Jubilee. It is to be released at the Jubilee, so that he may return to his property.

²⁹“If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year. ³⁰If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee. ³¹But houses in villages that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.

³²“Concerning the Levitical cities, ^rthe Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess. ³³Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem ^s—a house sold in a city they possess—must be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possession among the Israelites. ³⁴The open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.

³⁵“If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among ^tyou, you are to support him as a foreigner or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. ³⁶Do not profit or take interest from him, ^ubut fear your God and let your brother live among you. ³⁷You are not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit. ³⁸I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹“If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, ^vyou must not force him to do slave labor. ⁴⁰Let him stay with you as a hired hand or temporary resident; he may work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹Then he and his children are to be released from you, and he may return to his clan and his ancestral property. ^w42They are not to be sold as slaves, ^xbecause they are My slaves that I brought out of the land of Egypt. ⁴³You are not to rule over them harshly ^ybut fear your God. ⁴⁴Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves. ⁴⁵You may also purchase them from the foreigners staying with you, or from their families living among you—those born in your land. These may become your property. ⁴⁶You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.

⁴⁷“If a foreigner or temporary resident living among you prospers, but your brother living near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner living among you, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, ⁴⁸he has the right of redemption after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. ⁴⁹His uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him. If he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰The one who purchased him is to calculate the time from the year he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years. It will be set for him like the daily wages of a hired hand. ⁵¹If many years are still left, he must pay his redemption price in proportion to them based on his purchase price. ⁵²If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he will calculate and pay the price of his redemption in proportion to his remaining years. ⁵³He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A foreign owner is not to rule over him harshly in your sight. ⁵⁴If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released at the Year of Jubilee. ⁵⁵For the Israelites are My slaves. ^zThey are My slaves that I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.

Covenant Blessings and Discipline

26“Do not make idols for yourselves, ^aset up a carved image or sacred pillar for yourselves, or place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am Yahweh your God. ²You must keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; ^bI am Yahweh.

³“If you follow My statutes and faithfully observe My commands, ⁴I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ⁵Your threshing will continue until grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have plenty of food to eat and live securely in your land. ^c6I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. ^d7You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. ⁸Five of you will pursue 100, and 100 of you will pursue 10,000; your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ^e

⁹“I will turn to you, make you fruitful and multiply you, and confirm My covenant with you. ¹⁰You will eat the old grain of the previous year and will clear out the old to make room for the new. ¹¹I will place My residence ^famong you, and I will not reject you. ^g12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. ^h13I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke ⁱand enabled you to live in freedom. ^j

¹⁴“But if you do not obey Me and observe all these commands— ¹⁵if you reject My statutes and despise My ordinances, and do not observe all My commands—and break My covenant, ¹⁶then I will do this to you: I will bring terror ^kon you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷I will turn ^lagainst you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you. ^m

¹⁸“But if after these things you will not obey Me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins. ⁿ¹⁹I will break down your strong pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, ²⁰and your strength will be used up for nothing. ^oYour land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

²¹“If you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times for your sins. ^p22I will send wild animals against you that will deprive you of your children, ravage your livestock, and reduce your numbers…