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Leviticus 25

1Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: 2“Speak to the sons of Israel and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath to Yahweh. 3For six years you may sow your field, and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce. 4But in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You must not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You must not reap what grows on its own after your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. 6What the land produces during its Sabbath will be food for you—for you, your male slave and your female slave, your hired worker, and the resident staying with you, 7and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its produce will be for food.

8“You must count seven Sabbaths of years, seven years seven times. The period of those seven Sabbaths of years will be forty-nine years. 9Then you must sound a loud horn blast in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. On the Day of Atonement you must sound the horn throughout your land. 10You must consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim release in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee for you. Each of you must return to his holding, and each of you must return to his family. 11That fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. You must not sow, reap what grows on its own, or gather the grapes of its untended vines. 12For it is a Jubilee; it must be holy to you. You may eat its produce from the field. 13In this year of Jubilee each of you must return to his holding.

14“When you sell something to your neighbor or buy something from your neighbor, none of you may wrong his brother. 15You must buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the Jubilee; he must sell to you according to the number of harvest years. 16When there are more years, you must increase its purchase price; when there are fewer years, you must reduce its purchase price, because he is selling you a number of harvests. 17None of you may wrong his neighbor. You must fear your God, because I am Yahweh your God.

18“You must carry out my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. Then you will live securely in the land. 19The land will give its fruit, you will eat your fill, and you will live securely in it. 20If you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow or gather our produce!’— 21I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will produce a harvest for three years. 22You will sow in the eighth year while eating from the old produce. Until the ninth year, until its harvest comes in, you will eat the old produce.

23“The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine. You are foreigners and residents with me. 24Throughout the land you hold, you must allow the land to be redeemed. 25If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his holding, his nearest redeemer must come and redeem what his brother sold. 26If a man has no redeemer but gains enough means for its redemption, 27he must calculate the years since its sale and repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it. Then he may return to his holding. 28But if he cannot find enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the purchaser's possession until the year of Jubilee. It will be released at the Jubilee, and he may return to his holding.

29“If a man sells a dwelling in a walled town, he has the right to redeem it until a year from its sale is complete. His right of redemption lasts a full year. 30If it is not redeemed before a whole year has passed, the house in the town that has a wall will belong permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations. It will not be released at the Jubilee. 31But houses in villages without a surrounding wall must be reckoned as open-country fields. They may be redeemed and must be released at the Jubilee. 32As for the towns of the Levites, the houses in the towns they hold, the Levites have a lasting right of redemption. 33Whatever may be redeemed from the Levites—a house sold in a town of their holding—must be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levites' towns are their holding among the sons of Israel. 34But the pastureland surrounding their towns must not be sold, because it is their lasting holding.

35“If your brother becomes poor and his means fail beside you, you must support him as a foreigner and resident, so that he may live beside you. 36You must not take interest or profit from him. You must fear your God, so that your brother may live beside you. 37You must not lend him your money at interest or give 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 becomes poor beside you and is sold to you, you must not make him do a slave's work. 40He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident. He must work with you until the year of Jubilee. 41Then he and his sons with him must leave you. He must return to his family and to his fathers' holding. 42For they are my slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They must not be sold as slaves are sold. 43You must not rule over him ruthlessly. You must fear your God.

44“As for your male slave and your female slave whom you may have, you may buy male and female slaves from the nations around you. 45You may also buy from the sons of the residents staying with you and from their families who are with you, those born in your land. They may become your property. 46You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property. You may make them slaves permanently. But as for your brothers, the sons of Israel, none of you may rule over his brother ruthlessly.

47“If a foreigner and resident beside you gains means, and your brother beside him becomes poor and is sold to the foreigner residing beside you or to a member of a foreigner's family, 48he has the right of redemption after being sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. 49His uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or a close relative from his family may redeem him. Or, if he gains the means, he may redeem himself. 50He must calculate with his purchaser from the year he was sold to him until the year of Jubilee. The price of his sale must be proportionate to the number of years; his time with him must be reckoned like that of a hired worker. 51If many years remain, he must repay his redemption price from his purchase money in proportion to them. 52If only a few years remain until the year of Jubilee, he must calculate with him and repay his redemption price in proportion to his years. 53He must be with him as a worker hired year by year. His purchaser must not rule over him ruthlessly before your eyes. 54If he is not redeemed by these means, he and his sons with him must go free in the year of Jubilee. 55For the sons of Israel are slaves to me. They are my slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.”

Translation notes 10

25:4–7 — The land's Sabbath. The land itself is given rest. The ban on sowing and normal harvesting stands alongside permission to eat what grows during that rest, with slaves, workers, residents, livestock, and wild animals expressly included. The text does not require assuming the land produces nothing. “Untended vines” represents an expression related to being left uncut or set apart.

25:8–13 — Jubilee; release. Seven groups of seven years total forty-nine; the following year is expressly called the fiftieth. The text names the horn blast and release, then specifies return to family and landholding. “Release for all” must be read alongside the different rules later in the chapter; the draft does not change fifty to forty-nine or declare that every class of slave is released.

25:14–17 — Brother; harvests. “Brother” can mean a fellow Israelite, not only a biological sibling. The price reflects the number of harvests the purchaser will receive before the next Jubilee. The repeated instruction not to wrong one another is retained, along with fear of God.

25:20–22 — Years of provision. The sixth-year harvest supplies the period without normal harvest, including the interval after sowing in the eighth year until its crop comes in. The draft retains the third year and ninth year as stated rather than replacing them with a simplified calendar.

25:23–28 — Holding; redeemer. A holding is land belonging to a family within Israel. The nearest redeemer is a relative who can buy back what was sold; this is a concrete property and kinship role. Verse 27's repayment accounts for the years already used, while the remaining value is returned to the purchaser.

25:30 — Town that has a wall. The written consonants say “not,” but the Masoretic reading instruction gives “to it,” yielding “which has a wall.” The draft follows that reading, consistent with the walled-town case in verse 29 and its contrast with unwalled villages in verse 31. The compared Samaritan Hebrew and ancient Greek also have the positive wall wording.

25:32–34 — Levite towns. The opening of verse 33 is difficult. It can be read as referring to property redeemed or acquired from Levites, or to a Levite's exercise of redemption. The draft preserves “may be redeemed from the Levites” without adding a missing “not.” The stated release at Jubilee and the reason for it remain explicit. The pastureland has a separate prohibition on sale.

25:35–37 — Support; interest. “His means fail” represents the image of a slipping hand. The phrase “as a foreigner and resident” is difficult; it can describe how the poor brother is to be supported or extend support to a foreign resident as well. The precise difference between the two terms rendered “interest” and “profit” is disputed; the next verse relates them to money and food.

25:39–46 — Different statuses. The chapter distinguishes an impoverished Israelite's sale and eventual release from the purchase of foreign men and women as inheritable property. The latter may be enslaved permanently. The draft retains this unequal legal treatment and the stated property claims without disguising them as modern employment. Yahweh's claim “my slaves” is also retained.

25:47–55 — Redemption from a purchaser. Several relatives may redeem the sold Israelite, and he may redeem himself if he gains the means. The repayment is proportional to the remaining years. “His purchaser” in verse 53 clarifies an unnamed pronoun; the instruction forbids that purchaser's ruthless rule. His sons leave with him at Jubilee if he has not been redeemed.