Leviticus 25
Liberty Proclaimed, and the Land Returned
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The Land’s Sabbath
25:1The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:
25:2Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land that I am giving you shall rest, a Sabbath to the Lord.
25:3For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vine and gather its fruit.
25:4But in the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath, a rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vine.
25:5You shall not reap the things growing of themselves in your field or gather the grapes of your consecration. It shall be a year of rest for the land.
25:6The land’s Sabbath produce shall be food for you, your male slave, your female slave, your hired worker, and the lodger attached to you.
25:7All its produce shall also be food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.
The Jubilee and the Value of Harvests
25:8Count for yourself seven rests of years, seven years seven times. The seven weeks of years shall amount to forty-nine years for you.
25:9You shall make proclamation with a trumpet sound throughout your land in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. On the Day of Propitiation you shall make proclamation with a trumpet throughout your land.
25:10You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. This shall be a year of release, a signal for you. Each shall depart to his possession, and each of you shall depart to his ancestral homeland.
25:11This is a signal of release: the fiftieth year shall be a year for you. You shall not sow, reap what grows of itself, or gather its consecrated produce.
25:12For it is a signal of release; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the fields.
25:13In the year of release, at its signal, each shall return to his possession.
25:14If one sells property to your neighbor, or you acquire it from your neighbor, no one shall oppress his neighbor.
25:15According to the number of years after the signal you shall acquire from your neighbor; according to the number of harvest years he shall sell to you.
25:16As the years increase, you shall increase its purchase price; as the years decrease, you shall decrease its purchase price, for he is selling you a number of harvests.
25:17No one shall oppress his neighbor, and you shall fear the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God.
Security, Provision, and Ownership
25:18You shall do all My statutes and all My judgments, keep them, and do them; then you shall dwell confidently on the land.
25:19The land shall yield its produce, and you shall eat to fullness and dwell confidently upon it.
25:20If you say, “What shall we eat in this seventh year if we neither sow nor gather our produce?”
25:21I will send My blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall produce its harvest for the three years.
25:22You shall sow in the eighth year and eat old produce. Until the ninth year, until its produce comes in, you shall eat old stores from the old.
25:23The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine; you are resident foreigners and lodgers before Me.
25:24Throughout all the land of your possession, you shall provide ransom for the land.
Redemption of Land and Houses
25:25If your brother who is with you becomes poor and sells some of his possession, his nearest kinsman shall come and ransom what his brother sold.
25:26If someone has no kinsman but prospers by his hand and enough is found for his ransom,
25:27he shall calculate the years of his sale and repay the excess to the man to whom he sold himself; then he shall depart to his possession.
25:28If his hand does not prosper enough to repay him, the sale shall remain with the one who acquired it until the sixth year of release. It shall go out at the release, and he shall depart to his possession.
25:29If someone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, its ransom shall remain possible until a year of days is complete; that shall be its ransom period.
25:30If it is not ransomed before its whole year is complete, the house in the city that has a wall shall be confirmed permanently to its buyer throughout his generations. It shall not go out at the release.
25:31But houses in settlements that have no surrounding wall shall be reckoned with the field of the land. They shall always be redeemable and shall go out at the release.
25:32The cities of the Levites—the houses in their cities of possession—shall always be redeemable by the Levites.
25:33Whoever ransoms from the Levites, the sale of their houses in the city of their possession shall go out at the release, for the houses in the Levites’ cities are their possession among the sons of Israel.
25:34The fields set apart for their cities shall not be sold, for this is their perpetual possession.
Poverty, Loans, and Service
25:35If your brother becomes poor and grows weak in his hands beside you, you shall support him as a resident foreigner and a lodger, and your brother shall live with you.
25:36You shall take no interest or increase from him, and fear your God—I am the Lord—so that your brother may live with you.
25:37You shall not give him your silver at interest or give your food for an increase.
25:38I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
25:39If your brother is brought low beside you and is sold to you, he shall not serve you with the service of a household slave.
25:40He shall be with you as a hired worker or a lodger; he shall work beside you until the year of release.
25:41He shall go out at the release, and his children with him. He shall depart to his kin and return to his ancestral possession.
25:42For these are My household slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; one shall not be sold in a household-slave sale.
25:43You shall not wear him down with toil, but shall fear the Lord your God.
Foreign Slaves and Redemption from a Foreign Buyer
25:44Your male and female slaves may come from the nations around you; from them you may acquire a male slave or a female slave.
25:45You may also acquire from the sons of the lodgers among you and from their relatives who come to be in your land; they shall become your possession.
25:46You shall distribute them to your children after you, and they shall be held by you permanently. But among your brothers, the sons of Israel, no one shall wear down his brother with toils.
25:47If the hand of the resident foreigner or lodger beside you gains means, and your brother becomes needy and is sold to the resident foreigner or lodger beside you, a foreigner by birth,
25:48after he is sold to him, he shall have a right of ransom. One of his brothers may ransom him,
25:49His father’s brother or his father’s brother’s son may ransom him, or one of his close blood relatives from his tribe may ransom him; but if, having prospered by his hands, he ransoms himself,
25:50He shall calculate with the one who acquired him from the year he sold himself to him until the year of release. His sale price shall be like a hired worker’s pay; he shall be with him year by year.
25:51If many years remain for someone, he shall repay his ransom from his sale money in proportion to them.
25:52If few years remain until the year of release, he shall calculate with him according to his years and repay his ransom.
25:53He shall be with him as a hired worker year by year. You shall not wear him down with toil before you.
25:54If he is not ransomed by these means, he shall go out in the year of release, he and his children with him.
25:55For the sons of Israel are household slaves to Me; these are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.