- Leviticus
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25
1 The Lord told Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 “Tell the Israelites: When you enter the land that I'm giving you, the land itself must also observe a Sabbath rest in honor of the Lord. 3 Six years you can cultivate your fields, take care of your vineyards, and harvest your crops. 4 But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath in honor of the Lord. Don't plant your fields or care for your vineyards. 5 Don't harvest what may have grown up in your fields, or collect the grapes from your vineyards that you haven't cared for. The land is to have a year of complete rest. 6 You can eat whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year. This applies to yourself, your male and female slaves, paid workers and foreigners who live with you, 7 and to your livestock and the wild animals living in your land. Whatever grows can be used for food.
8 Count seven ‘sabbaths’ of years, in other words, seven times seven years, so that the seven sabbaths of years come to forty-nine years. 9 Then blow the trumpet all through the country on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement. Make sure this signal is heard throughout your whole country. 10 You are to dedicate the fiftieth year and announce freedom everywhere in the country for all who live there. This is to be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to reclaim your property and to be part of your family once more.*This meant that whatever property had been sold during the previous 50 years now reverted back to its original owner, and that anyone who had become a slave was set free and allowed to return to their own family. 11 The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. Don't sow the land; don't harvest what may have grown up in your fields, or collect the grapes from your vineyards that you haven't cared for. 12 It is a Jubilee and it is to be holy to you. You can eat whatever the land produces. 13 In this Jubilee Year, every one of you shall return to your own property.
14 If you sell land to your neighbor, or buy land from him, don't exploit one another. 15 When you buy from your neighbor work out how many years have passed since the last Jubilee, for he is to sell to you depending on how many years of harvest remain. 16 The more years that are left, the more you shall pay; the fewer years that are left, the less you shall pay, because he is actually selling you a specific number of harvests. 17 Don't exploit one another, but have respect for your God, because I am the Lord your God.
18 Keep my rules and observe my regulations, so you can live in safety in the land. 19 Then the land will produce good harvests, so you will have plenty to eat and live in safety there. 20 But if you ask, ‘What are we going to do in the seventh year if we do not sow or harvest our crops?’ 21 I will bless you in the sixth year, so that the land will produce a crop that will be enough for three years. 22 As you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from that harvest, which will last until your harvest in the ninth year.
23 Land must not be permanently sold, because it really belongs to me. To me you are only foreigners and travelers passing through. 24 So whatever land you buy to own, you must make arrangements so it can be returned to its original owner.†“Returned to its original owner”: literally, “the redemption of the land.” 25 If one of your people becomes poor and sells you some of their land, their close family can come and buy back what they have sold. 26 However, if they don't have anyone who can buy it back, but in the meantime their financial situation improves and they have enough to buy back the land, 27 they will work however many years it has been since the sale, and pay back the balance to the person who bought it, and go back to their property 28 If they can't raise enough to pay the person back for the land, the buyer will remain its owner until the Jubilee Year. But in the Jubilee Year the land will be returned so that the original owners can go back to their property.
29 If someone sells a house located in a walled town, they have the right to buy it back for a full year after selling it. It can be bought back any time during that year. 30 If it isn't bought back by the end of a full year, then ownership of the house in the walled town is permanently transferred to the one who bought it and their descendants. It won't be returned in the Jubilee. 31 But houses in villages that don't have walls around them are to be treated as located in the fields. They can be bought back, and will be returned in the Jubilee.
32 However, the Levites always have the right to buy back their houses in the towns that belong to them. 33 Whatever the Levites own can be bought back, even houses sold in their towns, and must be returned in the Jubilee. That's because the houses in the towns of the Levites are what they were given to own as their share among the Israelites. 34 However, the fields surrounding their towns must not be sold because they belong to the Levites permanently.
35 If any of your people become poor and can't survive,‡“Can't survive”: literally, “his hand has failed.” you must help them in the same way you would help a foreigner or a stranger, so that they can go on living in your neighborhood. 36 Don't make them pay you any interest or demand more than they borrowed, but respect your God so that they can remain living in your area. 37 Don't lend them silver with interest or sell them food at an inflated price. 38 Remember, I am the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 If any of your people become poor and have to sell themselves to work for you, don't force them to work as a slave. 40 Have them live with you like a paid worker who is staying with you for a while. They are to work for you until the Jubilee Year. 41 Then they and their children must be freed, and they can go back to their family and to their family's property. 42 Israelites are not to be sold as slaves because they belong to me as my slaves—I led them out of Egypt. 43 Don't treat them with brutality. Have respect for your God.
44 Buy your male and female slaves from the surrounding nations. 45 You can also buy them from foreigners who have come to live among you, or from their descendants born in your land. You can treat them as your property. 46 You can pass them on to your children to inherit as property after you die. You can make them slaves for life, but you must not brutally treat any of your own people, the Israelites, as a slave.
47 If a foreigner among you becomes successful, and one of your people living nearby becomes poor and sells themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner's family, 48 they still have the right of being bought back after the sale. A member of their family can buy them back— 49 an uncle or cousin or any close relative from their family can buy them back. If they become successful, they can buy themselves back. 50 The person concerned and their buyer will work out the time from the year of the sale up to the Jubilee Year. The price will depend on the number of years, calculated using the daily rate for a paid worker. 51 If there are many years left, they must pay a larger percentage of the purchase price. 52 If there are only a few years remaining before the Jubilee Year, then they only have to pay a percentage depending on the number of years still left. 53 They are to live with their foreign owner just like a paid worker, hired from year to year, but see to it that the owner doesn't treat him brutally. 54 If they are not bought back in any of the ways described, they and their children shall be freed in the Jubilee Year. 55 For the Israelites belong to me as my slaves. They are my slaves—I led them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

- Leviticus
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*25:10 This meant that whatever property had been sold during the previous 50 years now reverted back to its original owner, and that anyone who had become a slave was set free and allowed to return to their own family.

†25:24 “Returned to its original owner”: literally, “the redemption of the land.”

‡25:35 “Can't survive”: literally, “his hand has failed.”

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher