Leviticus 25

The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. He said:

1And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

NoteMount Sinai is the mountain in the desert where, in the account these books give, Israel camped after leaving Egypt and received the law. Leviticus presents its rules as spoken there.

2Speak to the people of Israel and tell them: When you come into the land I am giving you, the land itself must keep a sabbath rest to the LORD.

2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.

NoteA sabbath is a ceasing from work, normally the seventh day of the week. Here the same pattern is stretched over years: every seventh year the fields are left unworked, and the land is spoken of as taking the rest a person takes.

3For six years you may plant your field, and for six years you may trim your vineyard and gather in its crop.

3Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

4But the seventh year is to be a year of complete rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You must not plant your field or trim your vineyard.

4But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

5You must not harvest the grain that comes up on its own from your last harvest, or gather grapes from vines you did not tend. It is a year of rest for the land.

5That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

6Whatever the land grows during its sabbath will be food for you: for you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, and the foreigner staying with you,

6And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

NoteThree different statuses are listed. A male or female servant was an owned or indentured household worker; a hired worker was paid wages and free to leave; a "foreigner staying with you" was a non-Israelite settled long-term in Israel, who by law held no land of his own. In the fallow year all of them ate from the untended fields on the same footing as the landowner.

7and for your livestock and for the wild animals in your land. Everything the land produces may be eaten as food.

7And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

8Count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that the seven sabbaths of years come to forty-nine years.

8And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

Note"Sabbaths of years" counts year-cycles the way one counts days toward a sabbath: seven blocks of seven years, so the seventh year of each block is a fallow year and the whole count reaches forty-nine.

9Then on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement, have the jubilee horn sounded. Sound the horn all through your land.

9Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

NoteThe horn is a ram's horn (shofar), blown as a long carrying signal, not a musical instrument. The Hebrew word behind "jubilee," yovel, appears to have meant the ram's horn itself. The seventh month of the Hebrew year falls in our September–October, and its tenth day was the Day of Atonement, the annual day of fasting on which the sanctuary and the people were ritually cleansed.

10Set the fiftieth year apart as holy, and announce freedom throughout the land for everyone who lives in it. It will be a jubilee for you. Each of you is to go back to his own property, and each of you to his own family.

10And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

NoteTwo things are being announced. "Freedom" is the release of Israelites who had sold themselves into service to pay debts. "Back to his own property" refers to the division of Canaan, in which every family received a permanent allotment of land; any of it sold since the last jubilee reverted to the original family. "Family" here translates a word for a clan, the extended kin group larger than a household and smaller than a tribe.

11That fiftieth year is to be a jubilee for you. You must not plant, or harvest what comes up on its own, or gather grapes from vines you did not tend.

11A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

12For it is the jubilee. It is to be holy to you. You may eat what grows, taken straight from the field.

12For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

NoteFood could be picked from the fallow fields as it was needed, but not reaped, processed and stored as a harvest.

13In this year of jubilee each of you is to return to his own property.

13In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

14If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy anything from your neighbor, do not take advantage of one another.

14And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

Note"Take advantage" translates a word for defrauding or squeezing someone in a deal. In this context it means charging a price that ignores how few harvests are actually left before the jubilee returns the land.

15You are to buy from your neighbor based on the number of years since the jubilee, and he is to sell to you based on the number of harvest years that are left.

15According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:

16When there are many years left, raise the price; when there are few years left, lower the price. What he is selling you is a number of harvests.

16According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

NoteBecause land always reverted at the jubilee, no sale was permanent. What changed hands was the use of the field for the years remaining, so the price was effectively a lease price falling year by year.

17So do not take advantage of one another, but fear your God, for I am the LORD your God.

17Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the LORD your God.

18So follow my rules and keep my laws and carry them out, and you will live in the land in safety.

18Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

19The land will give its fruit, and you will eat until you are full and live there in safety.

19And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

20You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year? Look, we will not plant or gather in our crop."

20And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

21Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will produce enough for three years.

21Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

NoteThe arithmetic: the sixth year's crop has to feed them through the seventh year, when nothing is sown, and through the eighth, which is sown but not yet reaped, until the ninth year's harvest comes in.

22While you are planting in the eighth year you will still be eating from the old crop. You will keep eating from what was stored until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

22And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

23The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine, and you are foreigners and temporary residents living with me.

23The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

Note"Foreigners and temporary residents" is legal language for people living on land they do not own, by the owner's permission. Israelites are described as holding their land from God on those terms.

24Everywhere in the land you hold, you must allow land to be bought back.

24And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

NoteTo "buy back," or redeem, is a specific legal act: a payment that recovers property, or a person, out of someone else's hands. The rest of the chapter sets out who may make that payment and how the price is figured.

25If your brother becomes poor and sells off some of his property, and one of his relatives comes to buy it back, then that relative is to buy back what his brother sold.

25If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

Note"Brother" here means a fellow Israelite, not necessarily a blood brother. Israelite law gave the nearest male relative both the right and the expected duty to buy back land or a person on behalf of an impoverished member of his family; the same institution drives the story of Ruth.

26And if the man has no one to buy it back for him, but he himself gains enough to buy it back,

26And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

27then let him count the years since the sale, pay back the extra amount to the man he sold it to, and return to his property.

27Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.

NoteSince the price covered only the harvests left before the jubilee, buying back was a refund: the seller repays the buyer for the crop years the buyer will no longer get.

28But if he cannot get enough to repay him, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it is released, and he returns to his property.

28But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

29If a man sells a house in a walled city, he may buy it back within a full year after the sale. For one whole year he keeps the right to buy it back.

29And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.

NoteThe distinction is between property tied to a family's ancestral farmland and property that is not. Fields and village houses were part of the inheritance and always returned at the jubilee. Houses inside walled towns were treated more like traded goods, and after one year the sale became final.

30If it is not bought back before the full year is over, then the house in the walled city belongs permanently to the buyer and to his descendants. It is not released in the jubilee.

30And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.

31But houses in villages that have no wall around them are to be counted as open fields. They may be bought back, and they are released in the jubilee.

31But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.

32As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may buy back the houses in the cities they own at any time.

32Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

NoteThe Levites were the tribe set apart for service at the sanctuary. When the land was divided they received no territory of their own; instead they were given towns scattered among the other tribes, with grazing land around them. Those town houses were their equivalent of family land, which is why they keep a right of redemption that ordinary town houses lose.

33And if a man buys a house from the Levites, then that house sold in the city they own is released in the year of jubilee, because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the people of Israel.

33And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

34But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, because it is their permanent property.

34But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

NoteThe pastureland was the belt of common ground around a Levite town, used for grazing their animals. Unlike the houses, it could not be sold at all.

35If your brother becomes poor and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him, even if he is a foreigner or a temporary resident, so that he can go on living with you.

35And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

NoteThe Hebrew is compressed and can be read two ways: help him even though he is a foreigner or temporary resident, or help him in the way you would support such a person, as a dependent living alongside you.

36Do not take interest or extra payment from him, but fear your God, so that your brother can live with you.

36Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

NoteThe King James word "usury" meant any interest at all, not just excessive interest. Two terms are used: one for interest taken off the top of a loan, the other for the extra amount repaid at the end. The rule concerns lending to a fellow Israelite who has fallen into poverty.

37Do not lend him your money to earn interest, or give him your food to make a profit.

37Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

NoteLoans of food were as ordinary as loans of silver. Requiring back more grain than was lent counted as interest just as much as a cash charge.

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.

38I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

39If your brother who lives near you becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work as a slave.

39And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

Note"Sells himself" describes debt bondage: a man who had lost his land and could not pay handed over his labor to the creditor. It was a way of settling debt, not capture in war or purchase on a market.

40He is to be with you as a hired worker and a temporary resident, and he is to work for you until the year of jubilee.

40But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:

41Then he is to leave you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own family and to the property of his fathers.

41And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

42For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They must not be sold as slaves.

42For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

NoteOne Hebrew word, eved, covers both "servant" and "slave"; English translators choose between them case by case. The verse turns on that single word (Israelites are already God's eved, and so are not to be sold as anyone else's) and the wordplay disappears in English.

43Do not rule over him harshly, but fear your God.

43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

44The male and female slaves you have are to come from the nations around you. From them you may buy male and female slaves.

44Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

Note"Heathen" in the King James simply means the nations, that is, peoples other than Israel; in 1611 it carried no insult. The verse marks a legal line: permanent, inheritable slavery is permitted for non-Israelites, while Israelites in debt bondage must be released.

45You may also buy them from the children of the foreigners who are staying among you, and from their families who are with you, born in your land, and they will be your property.

45Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

46You may leave them to your children after you as inherited property, to own as slaves for life. But over your brothers, the people of Israel, none of you is to rule harshly over another.

46And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.

47If a temporary resident or foreigner living near you becomes rich, and your brother who lives near him becomes poor and sells himself to that foreigner or temporary resident, or to a member of the foreigner's family,

47And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family:

Note"A member of the foreigner's family" renders a phrase for his clan, the wider kin group, larger than a household, that a resident foreigner's descendants would form in Israel.

48then after he is sold he may still be bought back. One of his brothers may buy him back.

48After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

49His uncle or his uncle's son may buy him back, or any close relative from his family may buy him back. Or if he gains enough, he may buy himself back.

49Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.

50He and the man who bought him are to count the years from the year he was sold up to the year of jubilee. The price of his sale is to match the number of years, figured as if he were a hired worker.

50And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.

NoteHired labor was paid by the day, so the price is worked out as a day-laborer's wage multiplied by the years still to run before the jubilee. The nearer the jubilee, the fewer years are left to buy and the cheaper the release.

51If many years still remain, he must pay back for his freedom a matching share of the money he was bought for.

51If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

52And if only a few years remain until the year of jubilee, he is to count them with the man who bought him, and pay back for his freedom according to those years.

52And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.

53He is to be with him as a worker hired by the year, and the other man must not rule harshly over him where you can see it.

53And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

Note"Where you can see it" puts the wider Israelite community in the picture: they are the ones expected to notice and object if a foreign master treats an Israelite bondman harshly.

54And if he is not bought back in any of these ways, he is to go free in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him.

54And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him.

55For the people of Israel belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

55For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.