Leviticus 25:8-55

8‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. 9You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on 1the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. 10You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and 2proclaim 3a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, 4and 5each of you shall return to his own property, 6and each of you shall return to his family. 11You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. 12For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.

13‘7On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. 14If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend’s hand, 8you shall not wrong one another. 15Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your 9friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. 1610In proportion to the 11extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you. 17So 12you shall not wrong one another, but you shall 13fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

18‘You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that 14you may live securely on the land. 19Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20But if you say, “15What are we going to eat on the seventh year 16if we do not sow or gather in our crops?” 21then 17I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. 22When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat 18old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.

23‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for 19the land is Mine; for 20you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. 24Thus for every 21piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

25‘22If a 23fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his 24relative has sold. 26Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so 25recovers his means as to find sufficient for its redemption, 2726then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property. 28But if 27he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall 28revert, that 29he may return to his property.

29‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. 30But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not 30revert in the jubilee. 31The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall shall be considered 31as open fields; they have redemption rights and 32revert in the jubilee. 32As for 33cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. 33What, therefore, 34belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house sale 35in the city of this possession 36reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. 3437But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.

35‘38Now in case a 39countryman of yours becomes poor and his 40means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. 3641Do not take 42usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your 43countryman may live with you. 37You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain. 3844I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and 45to be your God.

39‘46If a 47countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. 40He shall be with you as a hired man, as 48if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee. 41He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers. 42For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale. 4349You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God. 44As for your male and female slaves whom you may have--you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. 45Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have 50produced in your land; they also may become your possession. 46You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. 51But in respect to your 52countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.

47‘Now if the 53means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a 54countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family, 48then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or 5556if he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him. 51If there are still many years, 57he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption; 52and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption. 53Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; 58he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight. 54Even if he is not redeemed by 59these means, 60he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. 55For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.