25 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath 1 to the Lord. 3 Six years you may sow your field, and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather the produce, 2 4 but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest 3 – a Sabbath to the Lord. You must not sow your field or 4 prune your vineyard. 5 You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned 5 vines; the land must have a year of complete rest. 6 You may have the Sabbath produce 6 of the land to eat – you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you, 7 7 your cattle, and the wild animals that are in your land – all its produce will be for you 8 to eat.
8 “‘You must count off 9 seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, 10 and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years. 11 9 You must sound loud horn blasts 12 – in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement – you must sound the horn in your entire land. 10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, 13 and you must proclaim a release 14 in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; 15 each one of you must return 16 to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. 17 12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you – you may eat its produce 18 from the field.
13 “‘In this year of jubilee you must each return 19 to your property. 14 If you make a sale 20 to your fellow citizen 21 or buy 22 from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. 23 15 You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since 24 the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left. 25 16 The more years there are, 26 the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, 27 the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of 28 produce. 17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, 29 but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God. 18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them 30 so that you may live securely in the land. 31
19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, 32 and you may live securely in the land. 20 If you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?’ 21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield 33 the produce 34 for three years, 22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce 35 – old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, 36 you may eat old produce. 23 The land must not be sold without reclaim 37 because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me. 38 24 In all your landed property 39 you must provide for the right of redemption of the land. 40
25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. 41 26 If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers 42 and gains enough for its redemption, 43 27 he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, 44 refund the balance 45 to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property. 28 If he has not prospered enough to refund 46 a balance to him, then what he sold 47 will belong to 48 the one who bought it until the jubilee year, but it must revert 49 in the jubilee and the original owner 50 may return to his property.
29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, 51 its right of redemption must extend 52 until one full year from its sale; 53 its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year. 54 30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, 55 the house in the walled city 56 will belong without reclaim 57 to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the jubilee. 31 The houses of villages, however, 58 which have no wall surrounding them 59 must be considered as the field 60 of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee. 32 As for 61 the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, 62 the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption. 33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem – the sale of a house which is his property in a city – must revert in the jubilee, 63 because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 34 Moreover, 64 the open field areas of their cities 65 must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.
35 “‘If your brother 66 becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, 67 you must support 68 him; he must live 69 with you like a foreign resident. 70 36 Do not take interest or profit from him, 71 but you must fear your God and your brother must live 72 with you. 37 You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit. 73 38 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan – to be your God. 74
39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. 75 40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; 76 he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 41 but then 77 he may go free, 78 he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. 79 42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. 80 43 You must not rule over him harshly, 81 but you must fear your God.
44 “‘As for your male and female slaves 82 who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. 83 45 Also you may buy slaves 84 from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are 85 with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. 46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. 86
47 “‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers 87 and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that 88 he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member 89 of a foreigner’s family, 48 after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. 90 One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin 91 may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives – his family 92 – may redeem him, or if 93 he prospers he may redeem himself. 50 He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years 94 from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. 95 51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them 96 he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption, 52 but if only a few years remain 97 until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption. 53 He must be with the one who bought him 98 like a yearly hired worker. 99 The one who bought him 100 must not rule over him harshly in your sight. 54 If, however, 101 he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free 102 in the jubilee year, he and his children with him, 55 because the Israelites are my own servants; 103 they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
26 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols, 1 so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before 2 it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence 3 my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, 4 4 I will give you your rains in their time so that 5 the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. 6 5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, 7 and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so 8 you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, 9 and you will live securely in your land. 6 I will grant peace in the land so that 10 you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. 11 I will remove harmful animals 12 from the land, and no sword of war 13 will pass through your land. 7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. 14 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain 15 my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year 16 and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. 17
11 “‘I will put my tabernacle 18 in your midst and I will not abhor you. 19 12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, 20 and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. 21
14 “‘If, however, 22 you do not obey me and keep 23 all these commandments – 15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep 24 all my commandments and you break my covenant – 16 I for my part 25 will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. 26 You will sow your seed in vain because 27 your enemies will eat it. 28 17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.
18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, 29 you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. 30 19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land 31 will not produce their fruit.
21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me 32 and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction 33 seven times according to your sins. 22 I will send the wild animals 34 against you and they will bereave you of your children, 35 annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population 36 so that your roads will become deserted.
23 “‘If in spite of these things 37 you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, 38 24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you 39 seven times on account of your sins. 25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. 40 Although 41 you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. 42 26 When I break off your supply of bread, 43 ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, 44 and you will eat and not be satisfied.
27 “‘If in spite of this 45 you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, 46 28 I will walk in hostile rage against you 47 and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. 48 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, 49 and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. 50 I will abhor you. 51 31 I will lay your cities waste 52 and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword 53 after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.
34 “‘Then the land will make up for 54 its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have 55 on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
36 “‘As for 56 the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though 57 there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand 58 for you before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.
39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of 59 their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ 60 iniquities which are with them. 40 However, when 61 they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, 62 by which they also walked 63 in hostility against me 64 41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and 65 then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for 66 their iniquity, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, 67 and I will remember the land. 43 The land will be abandoned by them 68 in order that it may make up for 69 its Sabbaths while it is made desolate 70 without them, 71 and they will make up for their iniquity because 72 they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred 73 my statutes. 44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors 74 whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”
46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established 75 between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through 76 Moses.
