1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount
Sinai,
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and
tell them, ‘When you come into the land
which I give you, then the land shall keep
a Sabbath to the LORD.
3 You shall sow your field six years, and
you shall prune your vineyard six years,
and gather in its fruits;
4 but in the seventh year there shall be
a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a
Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow
your field or prune your vineyard.
5 What grows of itself in your harvest
you shall not reap, and you shall not gather
the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall
be a year of solemn rest for the land.
6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for
food for you; for yourself, for your servant,
for your maid, for your hired servant, and
for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner
with you.
7 For your livestock also, and for the
animals that are in your land, shall all its
increase be for food.
8 “ ‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of
years, seven times seven years; and there
shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths
of years, even forty-nine years.
9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet
on the tenth day of the seventh month. On
the Day of Atonement you shall sound the
trumpet throughout all your land.
10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy,
and proclaim liberty throughout the land
to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee
to you; and each of you shall return to his
own property, and each of you shall return
to his family.
11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to
you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap
that which grows of itself, nor gather from
the undressed vines.
12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you.
You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
13 “ ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you
shall return to his property.
14 “ ‘If you sell anything to your neighbor,
or buy from your neighbor, you shall
not wrong one another.
15 According to the number of years after
the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor.
According to the number of years of
the crops he shall sell to you.
16 According to the length of the years
you shall increase its price, and according
to the shortness of the years you shall diminish
its price; for he is selling the number
of the crops to you.
17 You shall not wrong one another, but
you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD
your God.
18 “ ‘Therefore you shall do my statutes,
and keep my ordinances and do them; and
you shall dwell in the land in safety.
19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you
shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in
safety.
20 If you said, “What shall we eat the
seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow,
nor gather in our increase;”
21 then I will command my blessing on
you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit
for the three years.
22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat
of the fruits from the old store until the
ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you
shall eat the old store.
23 “ ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity,
for the land is mine; for you are
strangers and live as foreigners with me.
24 In all the land of your possession you
shall grant a redemption for the land.
25 “ ‘If your brother becomes poor, and
sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman
who is next to him shall come, and
redeem that which his brother has sold.
26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and
he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient
means to redeem it,
27 then let him reckon the years since its
sale, and restore the surplus to the man to
whom he sold it; and he shall return to his
property.
28 But if he isn’t able to get it back for
himself, then what he has sold shall remain
in the hand of him who has bought
it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it
shall be released, and he shall return to his
property.
29 “ ‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a
walled city, then he may redeem it within a
whole year after it has been sold. For a full
year he shall have the right of redemption.
30 If it isn’t redeemed within the space
of a full year, then the house that is in the
walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity
to him who bought it, throughout his
generations. It shall not be released in the
Jubilee.
31 But the houses of the villages which
have no wall around them shall be accounted
for with the fields of the country:
they may be redeemed, and they shall be
released in the Jubilee.
32 “ ‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the
Levites, the Levites may redeem the
houses in the cities of their possession at
any time.
33 The Levites may redeem the house
that was sold, and the city of his possession,
and it shall be released in the Jubilee;
for the houses of the cities of the Levites
are their possession among the children of
Israel.
34 But the field of the pasture lands of
their cities may not be sold, for it is their
perpetual possession.
35 “ ‘If your brother has become poor,
and his hand can’t support himself among
you, then you shall uphold him. He shall
live with you like an alien and a temporary
resident.
36 Take no interest from him or profit;
but fear your God, that your brother may
live among you.
37 You shall not lend him your money at
interest, nor give him your food for profit.
38 I 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.
39 “ ‘If your brother has grown poor
among you, and sells himself to you, you
shall not make him to serve as a slave.
40 As a hired servant, and as a temporary
resident, he shall be with you; he shall
serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.
41 Then he shall go out from you, he and
his children with him, and shall return to
his own family, and to the possession of his
fathers.
42 For they are my servants, whom I
brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall
not be sold as slaves.
43 You shall not rule over him with harshness,
but shall fear your God.
44 “ ‘As for your male and your female
slaves, whom you may have from the nations
that are around you, from them you
may buy male and female slaves.
45 Moreover, of the children of the aliens
who live among you, of them you may buy,
and of their families who are with you,
which they have conceived in your land;
and they will be your property.
46 You may make them an inheritance
for your children after you, to hold for a
possession. Of them you may take your
slaves forever, but over your brothers the
children of Israel you shall not rule, one
over another, with harshness.
47 “ ‘If an alien or temporary resident
with you becomes rich, and your brother
beside him has grown poor, and sells
himself to the stranger or foreigner living
among you, or to a member of the
stranger’s family,
48 after he is sold he may be redeemed.
One of his brothers may redeem him;
49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may
redeem him, or any who is a close relative
to him of his family may redeem him; or if
he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.
50 He shall reckon with him who bought
him from the year that he sold himself to
him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his
sale shall be according to the number of
years; he shall be with him according to
the time of a hired servant.
51 If there are yet many years, according
to them he shall give back the price of his
redemption out of the money that he was
bought for.
52 If there remain but a few years to the
year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with
him; according to his years of service he
shall give back the price of his redemption.
53 As a servant hired year by year shall
he be with him. He shall not rule with
harshness over him in your sight.
54 If he isn’t redeemed by these means,
then he shall be released in the Year of
Jubilee: he and his children with him.
55 For to me the children of Israel are
servants; they are my servants whom I
brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the
LORD your God.
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