Leviticus 25

₁The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded him ₂to give the following regulations to the people of Israel. When you enter the land that the LORD is giving you, you shall honour the LORD by not cultivating the land every seventh year. ₃You shall sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. ₄But the seventh year is to be a year of complete rest for the land, a year dedicated to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. ₅Do not even harvest the corn that grows by itself without being sown, and do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines; it is a year of complete rest for the land. ₆Although the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you, ₇your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten.

₈Count seven times seven years, a total of 49 years. ₉Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land. ₁₀In this way you shall set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to the original owner or his descendants, and anyone who has been sold as a slave shall return to his family. ₁₁You shall not sow your fields or harvest the corn that grows by itself or gather the grapes in your unpruned vineyards. ₁₂The whole year shall be sacred for you; you shall eat only what the fields produce of themselves.

₁₃In this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to its original owner. ₁₄So when you sell land to your fellow-Israelite or buy land from him, do not deal unfairly. ₁₅The price is to be fixed according to the number of years the land can produce crops before the next Year of Restoration. ₁₆If there are many years, the price shall be higher, but if there are only a few years, the price shall be lower, because what is being sold is the number of crops the land can produce. ₁₇Do not cheat a fellow-Israelite, but obey the LORD your God.

₁₈Obey all the LORD's laws and commands, so that you may live in safety in the land. ₁₉The land will produce its crops, and you will have all you want to eat and will live in safety.

₂₀But someone may ask what there will be to eat during the seventh year, when no fields are sown and no crops gathered. ₂₁The LORD will bless the land in the sixth year so that it will produce enough food for two years. ₂₂When you sow your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating what you harvested during the sixth year, and you will have enough to eat until the crops you plant that year are harvested.

₂₃Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.

₂₄When land is sold, the right of the original owner to buy it back must be recognized. ₂₅If an Israelite becomes poor and is forced to sell his land, his closest relative is to buy it back. ₂₆Anyone who has no relative to buy it back may later become prosperous and have enough to buy it back. ₂₇In that case he must pay to the man who bought it a sum that will make up for the years remaining until the next Year of Restoration, when he would in any event recover his land. ₂₈But if he does not have enough money to buy the land back, it remains under the control of the man who bought it until the next Year of Restoration. In that year it will be returned to its original owner.

₂₉If someone sells a house in a walled city, he has the right to buy it back during the first full year from the date of sale. ₃₀But if he does not buy it back within the year, he loses the right of repurchase, and the house becomes the permanent property of the purchaser and his descendants; it will not be returned in the Year of Restoration. ₃₁But houses in unwalled villages are to be treated like fields; the original owner has the right to buy them back, and they are to be returned in the Year of Restoration. ₃₂However, Levites have the right to buy back at any time their property in the cities assigned to them. ₃₃If a house in one of these cities is sold by a Levite and is not bought back, it must be returned in the Year of Restoration, because the houses which the Levites own in their cities are their permanent property among the people of Israel. ₃₄But the pasture land round the Levite cities shall never be sold; it is their property for ever.

₃₅If a fellow-Israelite living near you becomes poor and cannot support himself or herself, you must provide for them as you would for hired servants, so that they can continue to live near you. ₃₆Do not charge them any interest, but obey God and let your fellow-Israelites live near you. ₃₇Do not make them pay interest on the money you lend them, and do not make a profit on the food you sell them. ₃₈This is the command of the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt in order to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

₃₉If a fellow-Israelite living near you becomes so poor that he sells himself to you as a slave, you shall not make him do the work of a slave. ₄₀He shall stay with you as a hired servant and serve you until the next Year of Restoration. ₄₁At that time he and his children shall leave you and return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ₄₂The people of Israel are the LORD's slaves, and he brought them out of Egypt; they must not be sold into slavery. ₄₃Do not treat them harshly, but obey your God. ₄₄If you need slaves, you may buy them from the nations round you. ₄₅You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property, ₄₆and you may leave them as an inheritance to your sons, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any of your fellow-Israelites harshly.

₄₇Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while a fellow-Israelite becomes poor and sells himself as a slave to that foreigner or to a member of his family. ₄₈After he is sold, he still has the right to be bought back. One of his brothers ₄₉or his uncle or his cousin or another of his close relatives may buy him back; or if he himself earns enough, he may buy his own freedom. ₅₀He must consult the one who bought him, and they must count the years from the time he sold himself until the next Year of Restoration and must set the price for his release on the basis of the wages paid to a hired servant. _51-52He must refund a part of the purchase price according to the number of years left, ₅₃as if he had been hired on an annual basis. His master must not treat him harshly. ₅₄If he is not set free in any of these ways, he and his children must be set free in the next Year of Restoration. ₅₅An Israelite cannot be a permanent slave, because the people of Israel are the LORD's slaves. He brought them out of Egypt; he is the LORD their God.